Election time

For the first time in my life I have the pleasure to vote twice in one year. I voted last September, as every adult Norwegian could do, in the general local election. But this weekend I´ll have another chance to have my say - on Sunday (and Monday), the election for a new Lokalstyre (local government) is taking place here in Longyearbyen.

Arbeiderpartiet, Høyre, Fremskrittspartiet, Tverrpolitisk fellesliste and Svalbardslista run for election. (Which means that the party I voted for in the mainland-election is not represented, so I have to think anew.) The campaign hasn´t been terribly exciting - some leaflets in the post box, and three of the parties taking turns with stands outside the supermarket. One of the candidates in Svalbardlista has run an energic campaign in the local paper Svalbardposten, with lots of letters and opinions, but the other representatives haven´t used the local media much.

The responsibilities of Lokalstyret cover the school, nurseries, public library, sport center, gallery, cinema and everything technical when it comes to heat, water, renovation, etc etc. The money comes from local taxes, as far as I understand (which results in lower taxes than on the mainland). According to the Svalbard Treaty, Norway can´t claim more taxes than what is needed to run the local community, but whether this is still the case I´m not sure. (More here, if you´re interested).

Anyway, at the moment, Lokalstyret has 15 members, 6 from Arbeiderpartiet, 5 from Tverrpolitisk fellesliste, 2 from Høyre and 2 from Fremskrittspartiet. Arbeiderpartiet has the "mayor" (lokalstyreleder), Kjell Mork. How the situation will be after the election is difficult to predict, but my guess is that it won´t be very different. Mork seems to be pretty popular, and I have a feeling this is Arbeiderparti-land.

Last election the voting percentage of the population was disturbingly low, only 41,1 percent. I suppose a lot of people are in my situation - they´ve only just arrived, or they´re not staying for very long. So maybe they don´t feel they know enough. And then there are several other "excuses", I´m sure. Well, I´ll participate, here´s a real chance to make a (tiny) impact on how this community will function the next 4 years.

But what to vote? None of the parties want to relocate the population of Svalbard, as I suggested some days ago (that would indeed be kind of surrealistic - like a kamikaze politician!), and hardly any will put tougher restrictions on the use of cars and scooters. But they´re all for a better environment and a happy population, and I´m all for that, too.


Well, I´ll think of something. Godt valg!