Norwegian Election Day

Ten months ago I was up watching CNN and the US election. At 8am I went to bed after realizing the Americans (at least those who got to vote) had re-elected their president and Bush be around for another four years. And there was nothing I could do about it.

We might have a new prime minister in a few hours and this time I did help.

First a little something about elections in Norway. Apart from the dirt slinging we saw a year ago on the other side of the Atlantic, the most obvious difference is probably the number of parties. Rather than two big ones (and a few small no one seems to care about), we have plenty. I think there are about 16, but half of them are so small the news usually show 8+others, the 8 parties included in 'others' being about as large as the smallest of the other 8.

Just like in the US, it's not necessarily the person who gets the most votes who become boss. We don't even vote for people. For the first time there are two big sides, four parties on each side have become friends this year, bunching up as the socialists and the non-socialists.

The party I voted for is called something like Socialist Left and they're doing worse than last time.

The Labour party is becoming the big winner with 30,4% of the votes at the moment.

The parties on the left are red.
The parties on the right are blue.

There are 169 representatives.
Right now it's 85-84 in favour of the red.

One year ago I was hoping for blue (democrats) while now I'm hoping red (socialists). It's just as close as back then though, no one knows what's gonna happen yet. I'm thinking I should make a bet with someone - I lost last time but, looking back, paying up afterwards was one of the most pleasant experiences I've ever had.