Exit polls: Norway’s government wins re-election

OSLO — Two exit polls showed that Norway’s left-leaning government narrowly won re-election Monday in an election focused on how to manage the Nordic nation’s soaring oil wealth and seal cracks in its welfare system.

If confirmed by the official results, it would be the first time a government in Norway has survived an election since 1993.

An exit poll by national broadcaster NRK showed Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor-led coalition winning 86 seats in the country’s 169-seat Parliament. The opposition parties got a combined 83 seats in the Synovate survey, which included 3,000 voters and had an error margin of 1.8 percent.

A separate exit poll by TNS Gallup and presented by private network TV2 showed Stoltenberg’s bloc winning the vote 87-82. Official results were expected later Monday.

Opinion polls released before the vote showed Stoltenberg’s Labor-led coalition risked losing its hold on the legislature. Stoltenberg, 50, could still remain in power with a minority government because the opposition has been unable to muster a united front.

His top challenger is Siv Jensen, the leader of the right-wing populist Progress Party, which has gained support by calling for lowering Norway’s famously high taxes and tightening immigration rules.

It also wants to use more of Norway’s vast riches from oil and gas, most of which is tucked away for future generations in a sovereign wealth fund valued at more than 2.4 trillion kroner ($400 billion).

Oil and gas pumped from North Sea platforms have made the fjord-fringed country of 4.8 million people one of the world’s richest nations. But that wealth also presents a challenge for sitting governments, who must balance the risk of overheating the domestic economy with Norwegians’ high demands on the cradle-to-grave welfare system.

After casting her vote outside Oslo, Jensen blamed Stoltenberg’s three-party coalition for bad roads, crowded asylum centers and long waiting lists for non-emergency treatment at public hospitals.

“He has not been able to solve the welfare issues he promised to solve four years ago,” the 40-year-old candidate told The Associated Press. “That is reason enough for a new government.”

On Sunday, Stoltenberg dismissed Jensen’s platform as “completely wrong for Norway” and noted that Norway has survived the financial crisis largely unscathed under his government. Unemployment stands at 3 percent — among the lowest in Europe.

Oeystein Nordjordet, a construction worker in Oslo, said Labor’s policies were the best for Norway. “Because they are the safest. It’s Barack Obama politics, it’s exactly the same,” he said.

Stoltenberg’s camp has also played on the U.S. president’s “Yes we can” campaign slogan, with buttons and posters saying “Jens we can” in Norwegian.

Divisions within the opposition have raised Stoltenberg’s hopes of re-election. Two center-right parties — the Christian Democrats and the Liberals — have ruled out forming a coalition with the bigger Progress Party, mainly because they dislike its immigration policies.

Jensen’s party wants stronger demands on immigrants to integrate into Norwegian society and has proposed building Norwegian asylum centers in Africa.

Immigration has skyrocketed by a factor of five since the early 1970s — more than 10 percent of Norway’s population is of foreign origin. In recent years the biggest groups of asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Eritrea.

There’s been virtually no talk about joining the European Union, which Norwegian voters have rejected twice, and which on average has been more severely hit by the recession.

“There is no momentum for applying for membership now,” said Erna Solberg, the pro-EU leader of the Conservatives.

Associated Press Writer Ian MacDougall contributed to this report.