Turnout: 57.30%

Overview

The county council elections of 11 September 2023 followed the same rightward swing as the municipal vote held the same day. The Conservative Party (Høyre) finished first with 25.51% and 163 of the 664 county seats, ahead of the Labour Party (21.81%, 153) and the Progress Party (12.46%, 87). The Centre Party fell back to 8.63%. Turnout was 57.3%.

Electoral system

County councillors are elected for four years by party-list proportional representation (modified Sainte-Laguë). This election was held just as several of the county mergers imposed in 2020 were being unwound: from 1 January 2024 a number of counties were re-established as separate units, so the 2023 vote chose the councils of these soon-to-be-divided counties. Oslo, both a municipality and a county, held no separate county election.

Political context

As with the municipal contest, the result was a mid-term rebuke to Jonas Gahr Støre's red-green national government over the cost-of-living crisis and high electricity prices, and a vindication of the Centre Party's long campaign to reverse the 2020 regional reform.

Official data source

Norwegian Election Directorate (Valgdirektoratet) — valgresultat.no.