Norwegians prepare to vote in neck-and-neck election

Record ID: 909444

  • Title: Norwegians prepare to vote in neck-and-neck election
  • Date: 7th September 2017
  • Summary: SOLBERG ON ELECTRONIC ELECTION POSTER
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2017 10:44
  • Keywords: Norway election Erna Solberg Jonas Gahr Stoere campaign voting
  • Location: OSLO, NORWAY
  • City: OSLO, NORWAY
  • Country: Norway
  • Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
  • Reuters ID: LVA0026XLJB5Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Norwegian political parties intensified their parliamentary election campaign on Thursday (September 7) with Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Labour leader Jonas Gahr Stoere taking part in a debate outside the parliament building in Oslo.
    Opinion polls show a neck-and-neck race between Solberg's center-right block and center-left parties headed by Stoere ahead of Monday (September 11) election.
    For much of the year, Labour and its center-left allies were ahead in polls and projected to replace Solberg's minority coalition. But support for the opposition has slipped as the economy recovered.
    With only a few days left to go, the two main candidates for the prime minister's job have been out campaigning in a race that remains too close to call, and even small changes in support for some of the nine parties on the left and right could be decisive.
    While Solberg has pledged to cut income taxes to boost growth and jobs creation, Stoere seeks to hike taxes on high-earners and the wealthy to better fund Norway's extensive welfare state.
    Political scientist Johannes Bergh said that welfare issues, such as education and health care, have taken the centre stage in Norwegian election campaigns in the past.
    Should neither bloc secure a majority, the smaller Green party - which pledges to stop oil exploration and phase out production within 15 years - could become kingmakers.
    Overall, the Nordic nation faces at least ten potential alternatives for minority or majority coalition governments and the outcome of the vote is particularly hard to predict, pollsters say.
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