Norway went to the polls on 8 September for their general election. The Scandinavian country has now used proportional representation for over 100 years and the outcome of the election is a prime example of how people’s votes can be meaningfully translated into representation in parliament, in a multi-party system.
Labour received the most votes (28.0%), holding off a challenge from the populist-right Progress Party (23.9%), which doubled its vote share compared to the previous general election in 2021. The Labour party’s Jonas Gahr Støre is therefore highly likely to continue as Prime Minister following the election.
Given that the two largest parties in the Storting (Norway’s Parliament) received barely half of all the votes between them, Norway clearly has a multi-party system. And one that people engage with, as turnout was 79.9%, a stark contrast to the 59.9% of the electorate that voted in the UK general election of 2024.
Proportional Representation means voters get what they ask for
The results in the table below indicate how Norway’s long-established proportional electoral system, a version of the Party List, allows the democratic preferences of voters to be accurately reflected in parliament.
Norway’s 2025 Election
Labour has earned the right to continue in government, as the largest party in a centre-left bloc of parties, which gained more votes (49.2%) and more seats (88) than the centre-right bloc of parties (46.4% of votes; 81 seats).
However, while Labour will retain the premiership, they do not hold a majority of seats in the Storting (Norway’s parliament), which is in line with the fact they received the support of fewer than one-third of voters. Labour will rightly need to take account of the views of other parties in the centre-left bloc, while working as either a minority government or in some kind of coalition.
Predictable politics
You don’t need a PhD in Psephology to work out the impact on parliament of the way Norwegians vote. Had the Norwegian results happened in the UK, there is no easy way to work out what the outcome would be – so much depends not on how many votes a party gets, but where those voters live, under Westminster’s First Past The Post (FPTP) system.
A multi-party country saddled with a two-party voting system
In the UK, there is much evidence to suggest that changing voter preferences mean we have transitioned to a fully multi-party system. At the 2024 general election, Labour and the Conservatives received their lowest combined vote share (57.4%) in the era of universal suffrage; at the English local elections, in May 2025, Reform UK received the highest share of votes (30%) in the BBC’s projected national vote share, while five parties scored higher than 10% on this measure; meanwhile a YouGov MRP poll published in June 2025, show the top two parties, Reform UK (26%) and Labour (23%) on a combined support of just under half of the electorate, very similar to the combined support for the top two parties at the Norwegian election.
Unfortunately, unlike Norway, we are stuck with an outdated FPTP electoral system for general elections. Rather than simply reflecting how we vote, First Past the Post produces random results and gives parties underserved majorities, often on small vote shares, especially when it is used in a multi-party context.
The 2024 UK general election was the most disproportional in British history, with Labour winning a landslide victory (63.2% of seats), from little more than one-third (33.7%) of votes.
The UK’s 2024 Election
In May 2025, in nine of the councils where Reform UK won an overall majority of seats and full control, they secured fewer than 40% of votes. For example, in West Northamptonshire, Reform UK won 55.3% of councillors, from just 28.3% of votes. In Kent, they took 70.4% of councillors, from 36.2% of votes.
Voters should know what their vote will do
The UK government has recognised that FPTP does not work for the election of Mayors and Police & Crime Commissioners. We urgently need them to do the same when it comes to UK general elections, as well as English and Welsh local council elections.
Under FPTP, it is too often the case that voters feel forced to try to second guess the system and vote for a party that may not be their first choice, to try to ensure a party they particularly dislike does not win.
Introducing proportional representation would mean voters could focus on casting a vote for their genuine preferences, safe in the knowledge these would be accurately translated into strength in parliament or the council chamber.