Labour and Conservatives neck and neck in latest poll (Verdens Gang)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will not resign, even if the election results are as bad as the 25.5 per cent predicted in today’s poll. VG has received confirmation of this from sources involved in the PM’s appraisal of the situation. The poll, carried out by Norsk Gallup on behalf of VG and TV2, reveals the final stages of the election campaign to be a nail-biting thriller. Just three days before the election, the Labour Party and the Conservatives are running neck and neck – with 25.5 per cent each. The two parties have come together because the Conservatives have increased their support by two percentage points since the 2 September poll. At the same time, the Labour Party has dropped one percentage point.

Labour faces election disaster (Dagbladet)

Jens Stoltenberg has not managed to turn the tide. Support for the Labour Party continues to plummet, and could give the most disastrous election result in the party’s history. The latest party barometer from market researchers MMI shows that just 26.2 per cent of the electorate plan to vote for the Labour Party. The stage is set for post-election chaos in the Storting, but MMI’s poll also indicates that the non-socialist parties could still win a majority. Labour’s campaign strategy is not working. At the start of the campaign Labour made substantial gains on the Conservatives, who had built up a solid lead. But even though the Conservatives’ showing in the polls has fallen sharply in the past few months, the Labour Party is nowhere near its 1997 election result of 35 per cent.

Despite slide, Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Progress Party have absolute majority (Dagsavisen)

The three parties combined have the support of exactly 50 per cent of the electorate, according to a poll carried out by AC Nielsen Norge on behalf of Dagsavisen. This gives the trio 87 seats in the Storting, which amounts to an absolute majority. Support for the Conservatives, however, has fallen relatively strongly in this poll. In the past few months they have dropped 6.2 percentage points, and now have 21.7 per cent of the vote. In the same period the Labour Party has boosted its support by 2.5 percentage points, and now stands at 24.9 per cent.

Christian Democrats reject coalition with Labour (NTB)

Kjell Magne Bondevik in effect ruled out the possibility of a coalition between the Christian Democratic Party and the Labour Party. But whatever other government alternatives might pop up after the election remained a mystery after last night’s two television debates. Neither Mr Bondevik nor Prime Minister Stoltenberg allowed themselves to go one step further than they already have during this campaign. Mr Bondevik is sticking to the centre alliance alternative until the hell freezes over – or at least until the election results are published. For his part, Mr Stoltenberg says that it is up to the voters to decide. He sees no reason to speculate until the votes have been counted.

Labour leadership should be unified under Stoltenberg (Verdens Gang)

Eight Labour MPs have now openly declared their support for an end to the division of powers between party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Their theme is almost unanimously that Mr Jagland must resign as chairman and hand over the reins of power to Jens Stoltenberg. That Labour MPs should express such a lack of confidence in their party leadership just three days before the election is astonishing.

Calm account of dramatic events (Aftenposten)

Pregnant women, crying children, desperate men. They were sick or semi-conscious, vomiting over the deck, over themselves and over each other. But despite these facts, the crew of the Tampa described their role in the crisis without drama. They did their duty as sailors, according to Captain Rinnan. Late Wednesday evening the Tampa arrived in Singapore, and yesterday the crew had the opportunity to tell their side of the story. They told it quietly and with restraint. It made their account even more telling.

SSB predicts spring upturn (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Central Bureau of Statistics (SSB) is predicting increased growth, lower interest rates and inflation, and an upturn in the housing market from May next year. The SSB basis its optimism on the prospect of an upturn in the US economy. If that really does happen, we may see a rally on the stock exchange as early as this autumn. The SSB’s analysts are more positive about the prospect for Norwegian economic growth than the Norwegian Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance’s forecasters. While the SSB believes the Norwegian economy, excluding oil, will grow by 2.6 per cent next year, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance expect a more modest 1.8 per cent growth.

Divisions over Nato (Klassekampen)

There is complete confusion in the Socialist Left Party over its policy towards the new Nato and its military operations in the Balkans. In four counties the party’s candidates plan to vote against a motion to withdraw from Nato. During the last parliamentary term, Norway went to war. At one point the question of Norway’s role in the war threatened to tear the Socialist Left Party apart. A majority of the party’s MPs supported a Nato-led offensive that did not have a UN mandate.

Worth Noting

• The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) has worked out how much the parties’ election promises will cost. According to the NHO’s calculations, the parties have promised to spend an additional NOK 52 billion next year. "This is extremely serious. Instead of a cut in interest rates, which many people are hoping for, we risk driving interest rates up. The labour shortage experienced by the private sector will increase," said NHO chief executive Finn Bergesen Jr. (Verdens Gang)
• Over half of the electorate is dissatisfied with Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Sylvia Brustad’s performance on regional policy. Even among Labour voters, 30 per cent feel she has done a poor job. (Nationen)
• Marianne Nivert, chief executive of the Swedish telecoms giant, Telia, is believed to be ready to make a bid for Enitel, which is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Telia is reported to have asked stock brokers Sundal Collier for additional information on Enitel. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• If the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) chooses to support a proposal limiting the right of small unions to strike, the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions could leave the LO in protest. It would also be the beginning of the end for Gerd-Liv Valla’s dream of increasing the number of academics holding LO membership. (Aftenposten)
• The Norwegian company Genova AS is planning to farm genetically modified fish. Production will take place in Cuba. No Norwegian aquaculture firms were willing to participate in the project. (Nationen)
• From January next year healthfood products to the value of NOK 2 billion will be subject to independent analysis before they can be sold. The healthfood industry in Norway has taken the initiative for an approval scheme along the lines of a successful Swedish system. (Dagsavisen)
• People traffickers are systematically using Norwegian sporting events to obtain visas for Turkish asylum-seekers. The Bislett Alliance alone receives 100 requests each year. In October, three Turkish "tour guides" will be brought to trial for people smuggling. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

The final party leader debate will take place on NRK television tonight. But before it does, there is every reason to turn the spotlight on the role television has played in an election campaign which looks set to result in the most fragmented and least governable Storting for many decades. A fundamental question is whether the TV companies have managed to present adequate information about the various parties’ policies; information which the voters have a right to before they go to the polls. It is therefore unfortunate that none of the TV companies have felt it necessary to continue the tradition of subjecting each party in turn to an in-depth cross-examination. The objection that these televised cross-examinations were more of a sparring match between interviewer and interviewee is not sufficient to warrant the elimination of these programmes, which have a potentially high information value. The lack of such party cross-examinations is felt particularly keenly in a campaign where the relative strengths of the parties is changing so fast that the nightly news programmes must necessarily concentrate on the opinion polls’ dramatic swings. After the election, the entire media, including the newspapers, should ask themselves some critical questions about their own campaign coverage. The TV companies should ask themselves if they have guided or misguided viewers with their incessant head-to-head debates involving the Prime Minister. Never before has a sitting prime minister participated in so many televised debates as Jens Stoltenberg. But as it has gradually become clear that Mr Stoltenberg and his opponents Kjell Magne Bondevik and Jan Petersen each represent government alternatives backed by no more than a quarter of the voters, how interesting have these debates become from a political point of view? As always there has been disagreement about whether representatives from the smaller parties should participate in televised public meetings and party leader debates. We do not understand that the quality of a television programme can be reduced by having seven or eight participants rather than six. For our part we have our doubts about a Storting which consists of so many parties that it is difficult to pursue a coherent political programme. But it is not up to the television companies to prevent a divided Storting. Their editorial freedom is undisputed, but they should beware of using it in such a way that they come under suspicion of themselves acting as players in the political game, and expose themselves to accusations of hindering freedom of speech in the closing stages of the election.