Polls give Labour slight advantage, advance voting breaks record, electric plane takes flight and more news from Norway this Friday.
Labour party given slight advantage ahead of election
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre could hold onto his job in the general election, seemingly boosted by a need for stability in turbulent times, according to news agency AFP’s assessment ahead of Monday’s vote.
The left-wing bloc headed by Store’s Labour Party holds a slight lead in opinion polls going into the final straight, AFP writes.
That can be considered an unexpected turn of events for Støre, given his poor polling just under a year ago.
Since then, Labour has been reinvigorated by the implosion of its stormy coalition with the eurosceptic, agrarian Centre Party as well as the arrival of ex-NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg as finance minister.
Meanwhile, the return of Donald Trump to the White House may have had a consolidating effect for Norway’s government, an expert told AFP.
Political scientist Johannes Bergh of the Institute for Social Research (ISF) said Støre was benefitting from “a rally around the flag” effect amid Trump’s trade policies and questions over US willingness to defend Europe militarily.
READ ALSO: What happens on election day in Norway and when will we know the results?
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New record for advance voting
Advance voting for the election – already reported this week to be at a high level – has hit a new record, news wire NTB reports.
Some 1.71 million people have already voted, the Norwegian Directorate of Elections said. That is enough ballots to surpass the previous record of 1.648 million advance votes in 2021.
Advance voting closes today, with the last advance polling stations shutting at 7pm.
The share of advance voting has been rising steadily for decades, but surged in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some 45 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in advance that year, up from 29 percent in 2017.
On election night, early prognosis of the outcome is based on advance votes which have already been counted.
Norway experiments with electric plane in real-life test
An electric plane took to the skies between the Norwegian airports Stavanger and Bergen on Thursday, simulating a cargo flight for the first time in real-life conditions, Norwegian airlines operator Avinor announced.
The small aircraft — an Alia built by US aircraft manufacturer Beta — flew the 160 kilometres (100 miles) in a test run by the Norwegian affiliate of the transport company Bristow.
The flight took 55 minutes and simulated a cargo flight route in southeastern Norway.
“This is the first time an electric plane has taken the trade route between Stavanger and Bergen,” one of Avinor’s directors, Karianne Helland Strand, told AFP.
“Everything went very well,” she added.
Thousands of hens euthanised after avian flu detected
Avian flu has been detected at an egg producer in Hadsel municipality in Nordland, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority said in a statement yesterday.
The farm where the infection was found houses 7,500 hens, all of which must be culled for animal welfare reasons and to prevent further spread, the authority said.
The risk of humans being infected with bird flu from eating eggs or poultry meat is considered very low.