Anti-immigration party eyes power in Norway

Progress Party likely to share power as part of centre-right coalition following parliamentary polls currently underway.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg casts his ballot
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's ruling coalition has been trailing in opinion polls for months [Reuters]

Polls have opened across Norway for parliamentary elections that could land the anti-immigration Progress Party in government and lead to a change of power in the oil-rich Nordic country for the first time since 2005.

Polls close at 19:00 GMT, when several exit polls – which have proved accurate in the past – will be published. Indicative results are expected around 22:00 GMT on Monday.

Despite Norway’s strong economy and low unemployment, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s ruling, centre-left coalition has been trailing in opinion polls for months ahead of election day.

The Progress Party appears likely to come into power for the first time as part of a centre-right coalition led by Erna Solberg’s Conservative Party.

It is the first parliamentary election since a heavily-armed Anders Behring Breivik bombed Oslo and killed 77 people on an island in 2011.

Thirty-three survivors of the massacre on Utoya island, mostly teen members of the Labor Party youth wing, are seeking national office in the election.

Source: News Agencies