By this year’s parliamentary elections, for the first time there will be more voters with an immigrant background than there are first-time voters.
The number of voters has increased by almost 113,000 to 3,756,400 people who
have the right to vote in the parliamentary elections on the 11th of September. Of these, 259,900 have immigrant backgrounds. This is 44,833 more than it was four years ago.
At the same time, there are 248,500 eligible as first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 21. That is 29 fewer than in the parliamentary elections of 2013, wrote Aftenposten newspaper.
Statistics adviser, Øyvin Kleven, of Statistics Norway (SSB), believes immigrant voters may be an important factor in the outcome of this year’s parliamentary elections, as the running is so close between the parties.
The proportion of voters is more than 20% lower among immigrants than other groups.
Professor Tor Bjørklund of the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo, said that this is mainly due to the fact that voters with immigrant backgrounds are still being included on the register, and that it takes time for new voters to exercise their right to vote.
The electorate with an immigrant background have been shown to vote for the left wing element to a greater extent than the rest of the population. In 2013, a survey from SSB showed that over half of voters with backgrounds from Africa, Asia , and the Middle East, voted for Arbeiderpartiet (Ap) candidates.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
