2015 Norwegian local elections

Local elections were held in Norway on 14 September 2015. Voters elected representatives to municipal and county councils, which are responsible for education, public transport, health, and elderly care, and for the levy of certain taxes. The Labour Party became the largest party, gaining 33% of the vote, while the nationally governing Conservative and Progress parties suffered losses relative to their performances in the 2013 parliamentary and 2011 local elections.^[1]

2015 Norwegian local elections

← 2011 14 September 2015 2019 →
Turnout	59.7%
Party Labour Conservative Progress Popular vote 785,799 552,334 225,438 Percentage 33% 23.2% 9.5%   Party Centre Liberal Christian Democratic Popular vote 202,238 131,078 129,551 Percentage 8.5% 5.5% 5.4%   Party Green Socialist Left Red Popular vote 100,955 97,933 46,689 Percentage 4.2% 4.1% 2.0%

Term of office was 1 January 2016 until 31 December 2019.

The results meant that the Conservatives were set to lose control of Norway's two most populous cities, Oslo and Bergen.^[2]

In Tromsø the Red Party garnered a record 14.4% of the votes. They formed a majority along with the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party, and chose to phase out the local parliamentary system.^[3]

Debates

2015 Norwegian local elections debates
Date	Time	Organisers	P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee
			Ap	H	Frp	Sp	KrF	V	SV	MDG	Refs
6 August 2015	???	TV2	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	N Siv Jensen	N Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	N Knut Arild Hareide	N Trine Skei Grande	N Audun Lysbakken	N Rasmus Hansson	[4][5]
???	???	TV2	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	P Siv Jensen	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	P Knut Arild Hareide	P Trine Skei Grande	P Audun Lysbakken	P Rasmus Hansson	[6]

Results

Municipal

← Summary of the 14 September 2015 municipal election results

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Labour Party (Ap)	789,170	33.0	1.3	3,459	81
	Conservative Party (H)	554,399	23.2	4.8	1,954	394
	Progress Party (Frp)	226,640	9.5	1.9	890	253
	Centre Party (Sp)	203,188	8.5	1.8	1,774	354
	Liberal Party (V)	131,836	5.5	0.8	545	95
	Christian Democratic Party (KrF)	130,268	5.4	0.1	623	30
	Green Party (MDG)	101,612	4.2	3.3	231	213
	Socialist Left Party (SV)	98,625	4.1	0.1	359	3
	Red Party (R)	47,102	2.0	0.4	80	23
	Pensioners' Party (Pp)	18,569	0.8	±0.0	44	6
	Others	1,139	3.8	0.1	0	±0
Total		5,431,850	100.00	±0.0	300	±0
Votes cast / turnout		5,566,295	59.9	3.7
Abstentions		4,274,230	40.1	3.7
Source: VG

County councils

← Summary of the 14 September 2015 county council election results

Party		Vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Labour Party (Ap)	741,976	33.6	0.4	277	4
	Conservative Party (H)	517,318	23.4	4.2	167	43
	Progress Party (Frp)	226,986	10.3	1.5	83	13
	Centre Party (Sp)	176,252	8.0	1.7	80	19
	Christian Democratic Party (KrF)	123,075	5.6	0.2	46	1
	Green Party (MDG)	111,168	5.0	3.7	36	34
	Liberal Party (V)	109,556	5.0	0.7	39	7
	Socialist Left Party (SV)	88,944	4.0	0.3	28	6
	Red Party (R)	47,561	2.2	0.4	10	3
	Pensioners' Party (Pp)	20,185	0.9	±0.0	3	±0
	Others	1,139	2.0	0.6	0	±0
Total		5,431,850	100.00	±0.0	300	±0
Votes cast / turnout		5,566,295	55.8	3.4
Abstentions		4,274,230	44.2	3.4
Source: VG

Endorsements

National daily newspapers

Newspaper	Party endorsed
Aftenposten		Conservative Party[7]

Donations

According to Statistisk sentralbyrå, a total of 50.02 million NOK in campaign contributions was raised by all political parties in 2015.^[8]

Party		Donations (NOK)
	Labour Party	28,572,534
	Conservative Party	11,195,928
	Socialist Left Party	2,833,907
	Progress Party	2,435,250
	Centre Party	2,317,364
	Liberal Party	1,399,438
	Green Party	897,625
	Red Party	341,309
	Christian Democratic Party	34,000