NORWAY: Norway's tiny communist and pro-whaling parties could hold the balance of power after Norway's September 12th election with the government and the left-wing opposition deadlocked, an opinion poll showed yesterday.
The government has rebounded sharply in the final days of a campaign fought over how to manage vast oil wealth in Norway, the world's number three exporter. The opposition aims to spend more on welfare, while the government promises more tax breaks.
The survey for the daily Aftenposten showed the centre-right coalition and its informal backer, the far-right Progress Party, would win 84 seats in the 169-member parliament, one short of a majority.
The Labour-led "Red-Green" opposition alliance would win 82 seats while the independent Coastal Party, which defends the interests of fishing communities, would win two seats and the communist Red Election Alliance one, it said.
A second poll, for the Verdens Gang newspaper, showed the ruling coalition could squeeze through to a majority with 85 seats, with the Red-Green alliance trailing on 81.
"The race is not over, as I thought some weeks ago," prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik told NRK, the public broadcaster.
The Red-Green alliance had led in every opinion poll this year until this week.
A drop in support for Labour's main coalition partner, the Socialist Left - who have never been in government, want a six-hour working day and no grades in school - threatens to cost the Red-Green alliance victory, Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg said.
"The Socialist Left have lost support during the campaign. We have lost the majority because of the socialists." Polls show support for the socialists has dropped to around 12 per cent from 15 per cent. Labour has about 30 per cent.
"The socialists' campaign has been lacklustre," Frank Aarebrot, a professor of political science at Bergen university, said.
"They used to be one of the best campaigners, but they have been responsible before they need to be."