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Norway couch potatoes voting from home

One third of all voters in local elections in Norway has changed loyalties and will vote for another party after taking an online test of their views versus those of party candidates.

Many of Norway’s news outlets have been sporting new valgautomater, or vote machines, with many claiming participants were changing parties after taking online tests of their views. Nearly a decade old, the electronic quizzes have become more convincing than ever.

Broadcaster NRK’s e-vote quiz starts by asking which municipality one lives in, and then asks what party one thinks one ought to vote for. It then asks how strongly you agree with political statements on 22 local issues and how important they are.

The results helped many vote online rather than visit public buildings with their election stations. Midnight Saturday marked the end of online voting.

“Most people say they like sitting in peace and calm at home when they vote and for example look up candidate lists from other parties (online),” said Radøy municipality’s e-vote overseer, Tove Thomassen, to newspaper Bergens Tidende.

“We are very satisfied that so many have voted electronically,” said Thomassen.

In addition to the e-tests of voter views, three-quarters of all early voting was registered online: 48-year-olds overtook 20-somethings to become the leading demographic to vote from laptops on sofas and office blocks.

Voters could also inspect an interactive, online map showing the state of their municipality’s finances, including scores for healthcare, schools, kindergartens, culture and costs.

Electronic vote counts appeared to temper predictions of political change in the capital, Oslo, and in the old German trading town of Bergen. In cosmopolitan Oslo, a Labour Party decimated this summer by a gunman’s murderous attack on its youth wing was seen benefiting from a wave of sympathy able to replace the well-ensconced and poll-leading Conservative Party candidate.

An electronic poll on Sunday by newspaper Aftenposten gave the coalition’s Socialist Left party 5.2 percent of the vote. The party’s political victories included edging government away from drilling for oil in the pristine Lofoten Islands, the right to daycare and a wealth tax on the country’s rich which in 2011 saw the wealthy taxed for the first time on their assets as well as their taxable income.

Party leader Kristin Halvorsen had served as finance minister in coalition with Labour and the agrarian Centre party.

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POLITICS

How Norway’s 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s government won’t unveil its budget for another few weeks, but several proposals, such as income tax cuts, have already been made public. Here's how foreign residents in Norway will be affected.

How Norway's 2025 budget will impact foreign residents

Norway’s budget for 2025 will be unveiled on October 7th. It is the last budget the current government will present before the general election next year.

Tax cuts

Finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said this summer that those on ordinary incomes would pay less income tax in 2025. How much income tax will be cut is currently unknown.

Tax residents of Norway currently pay a flat tax rate of 22 percent, and then a further “bracket tax” based on how much they earn. For example, those who earn up to 670,000 kroner per year pay a four percent bracket tax, while those making between 670,001 and 937,900 kroner pay a 13.6 percent bracket tax.

READ ALSO: How does Norway’s bracket tax for income work?

Norway’s tax card system would also be tweaked to benefit those with part-time jobs. Next year, you can earn up to 100,000 before paying tax. This could benefit foreign students in Norway.

Finances

The government will continue its electric subsidy for households next year. The government announced its intention to continue the policy this spring.

Currently, the state covers 90 percent of the electricity price above 73 øre per kWh – or 91.25 øre including VAT.

Residents of Norway’s 212 least central municipalities will have 25,000 kroner of their student loans written off per year from 2026.

Those in Finnmark and Nord-Troms will have their loans written off at a rate of 60,000 kroner a year.

READ MORE: The incentives to attract people to northern Norway

Crime

The government will spend an extra 2.8 billion kroner on fighting crime. Of this, 2.4 billion kroner will go directly to beefing up the number of police officers in Norway. Some 90 million kroner would be put towards cracking down on financial crime.

Furthermore, 405 million kroner would also be spent on fighting youth crime, by creating a fast track court for young offenders and creating more juvenile detention places.

Travel changes

Up to 2.9 billion kroner extra spending will go into maintaining Norway’s rail infrastructure. Signal and track failures have been a constant source of delays in east Norway, where services regularly struggle with punctuality.

Over 12 billion kroner will be spent on Norway’s rail system.

Norway could finally reveal more details on its proposed tourist tax. The country’s industry minister, Cecilie Myrseth, has previously said that a proposal would be tabled this autumn.

The minister didn’t say whether this would be related to the raft of proposals included in the budget.

A potential tourist tax has long been promised by the current government as part of the Hurdal Agreement it was formed on in 2021.

As part of its budget cooperation with the Socialist Left Party, the government will be required to assess whether a subsidy scheme should be introduced for long-distance bus travel in Norway.

Bus routes without an alternative, such as train, could be subsidised under the scheme.

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