Voting kicks off in Norwegian parliamentary election

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Voting kicks off in Norwegian parliamentary election

(Xinhua) 17:57, September 09, 2013

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OSLO, Sept. 9 -- Norwegian voters queued up on Monday at polling stations throughout the Nordic nation to elect a new parliament for the next four years.

About 3,000 polling stations across Norway opened at 9 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) for voting, which is scheduled to end at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Among the 3.6 million registered voters, 70,000 have chosen to cast their ballots in what is called advance voting.

A total of 17 political parties or groups would compete for the 169 seats in the Norwegian parliament.

The ruling Labor Party and the most popular opposition party -- the Conservative Party are fighting to be the largest party in parliament as neither stands a chance to win more than 86 parliamentary seats to form a majority government.

The party winning largest number of parliament seats will be invited to form a new government if its coalition talks with other parties turn out to be successful.

The preliminary results were expected on late Monday night.

Over the weekend, the parties launched last-minute bid to seek voter's support.

Accompanied by Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang, Erna Solberg, leader of the Conservative Party, visited residents in Oslo's Nydalen area on Sunday, giving away election badges and bottled water.

Jens Stoltenberg, Norwegian prime minister and leader of the ruling Labor party, casted his ballot on Sunday at a polling station set up in a school near his official residence.

When talking to reporters after his voting, Stoltenberg called for voters to make their decisions and support his party for a continued stable government.

Norway holds a parliamentary election every four years. The Election Day, which is decided by the king, normally will be the second or third Monday in September of the election year.