The Parliament decided to allow to delete candidates

The Politicians behind the proposal. Photo: Stortinget.no, Collage: MTm

The Parliament decided to allow to delete candidates at local elections

Parliament on Tuesday adopted to restore the ability to delete candidates in local elections.

 

The Labour Party, the Christian Democrats, the Center Party and Socialist Party voted against the Representative proposal from the Conservatives and the Progress Party. The Liberals was divided: three voted for, while one representative voted against is shown in the voting review.

Ahead of municipal elections in 2003, Parliament adopted removing the ability to delete candidates at municipal elections. In 2010 suggested the Conservatives to reintroduce the possibility, but did not get enough support to get it through the Parliament. In 2015, they tried again.

A burden to be delisted

One of the six representatives behind the proposal is Conservative MP, Michael Tetzschner, who is in the Parliament’s Control and Constitution Committee. He wants to give voters a more direct influence on person choices.

– A natural end to start is to reintroduce the people were accustomed to: That they can both provide an additional tick, but also delete candidates they are not so thrilled about, said Tetzschner to Aftenposten autumn 2015, when the proposal was tabled.

In 2003, the removal of the option to delete candidates on the grounds that deletions could especially affect candidates with immigrant backgrounds, but also women. It was also shown that it could be a tough burden for candidates to be crossed out a lot.

Negative effect

An analysis from the Institute for Social Research from 2009 showed that gender and age composition of municipal councils were not affected by possibility to cross out

Top candidates and others who stood high on the lists received the highest number of strokes. Women received somewhat more deletions than men, and young candidates had more than the oldest. Crossing out, however, have an effect on who sits in municipal councils. 12 percent of the representatives elected in 1999 would not have been chosen without deletions of others.

Institute for Social Research However, they concluded that the reintroduction of delistings will have a negative effect on the eligibility of candidates with immigrant backgrounds. The researchers compared the local elections in 1999, when there was an opportunity to strike out, with the election in 2003, when this possibility was removed.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today