C. Rights of citizens and the Legislative Power
Article 49
The people exercise the Legislative Power through the Storting.
Representatives to the Storting are elected through free elections and secret ballot.
Article 50
Those entitled to vote are Norwegian citizens, men and women, who, at the latest in the year when the election is held, have completed their 18th year.
The extent, however, to which Norwegian citizens, who on Election Day are resident outside the Realm but who satisfy the aforementioned conditions, are entitled to vote shall be determined by law.
Rules may be laid down by law concerning the right to vote of persons, otherwise entitled to vote, who on Election Day are manifestly suffering from a seriously weakened mental state or a reduced level of consciousness.
Article 51
The rules on the keeping of the poll list and on the registration in the poll list of persons entitled to vote shall be determined by law.
Article 52
(Repealed)
Article 53
The right to vote is lost by persons:
- sentenced for criminal offences, in accordance with the relevant provisions laid down by law;
- entering the service of a foreign power without the consent of the Government.
Article 54
The polls shall be held every fourth year. They shall be concluded by the end of September.
Article 55
The polls shall be conducted in the manner prescribed by law. Disputes regarding the right to vote shall be settled by the poll officials, whose decision may be appealed to the Storting.
Article 56
(Repealed)
Article 57
The number of representatives to be elected to the Storting shall be one hundred and sixty -nine.
The Realm is divided into nineteen constituencies.
One hundred and fifty of the representatives to the Storting are elected as representatives of constituencies and the remaining nineteen representatives are elected as members at large.
Each constituency shall have one seat at large.
The number of representatives to the Storting to be chosen from each constituency is determined on the basis of a calculation of the ratio between the number of inhabitants and surface area of each constituency and the number of inhabitants and surface area of the entire Realm, in which each inhabitant counts as one point and each square kilometre counts as 1.8 points. This calculation shall be made every eighth year.
Specific provisions on the division of the Realm into constituencies and on the allotment of seats in the Storting to the constituencies shall be determined by law.
Article 58
The polls shall be held separately for each municipality. At the polls votes shall be cast directly for representatives to the Storting, together with their proxies, to represent the entire constituency.
Article 59
The election of representatives of constituencies is based on proportional representation and the seats are distributed among the political parties in accordance with the following rules.
The total number of votes cast for each party within each separate constituency is divided by 1.4, 3, 5, 7 and so on until the number of votes cast is divided as many times as the number of seats that the party in question may be expected to obtain. The party which in accordance with the foregoing obtains the largest quotient is allotted the first seat, while the second seat is allotted to the party with the second largest quotient, and so on until all the seats are distributed.
List alliances are not permitted.
The seats at large are distributed among the parties taking part in such distribution on the basis of the relation between the total number of votes cast for the individual parties in the entire Realm in order to achieve the highest possible degree of proportionality among the parties. The total number of seats in the Storting to be held by each party is determined by applying the rules concerning the distribution of constituency seats correspondingly to the entire Realm and to the parties taking part in the distribution of the seats at large. The parties are then allotted so many seats at large that these, together with the constituency seats already allotted, correspond to the number of seats in the Storting to which the party in question is entitled in accordance with the foregoing. If a party has already through the distribution of constituency seats obtained a greater number of seats than it is entitled to in accordance with the foregoing, a new distribution of the seats at large shall be carried out exclusively among the other parties, in such a way that no account is taken of the number of votes cast for and constituency seats obtained by the said party.
No party may be allotted a seat at large unless it has received at least four per cent of the total number of votes cast in the entire Realm.
Specific provisions concerning the distribution among the constituencies of the seats at large allotted to the parties shall be determined by law.
Article 60
Whether and in what manner those entitled to vote may deliver their ballot papers, without personal attendance at the polls, shall be determined by law.
Article 61
No one may be elected as a representative unless he or she is entitled to vote.
Article 62
Officials who are employed in government ministries, except however State Secretaries and political advisers, may not be elected as representatives. The same applies to Members of the Supreme Court and officials employed in the diplomatic or consular services.
Members of the Council of State may not attend meetings of the Storting as representatives while holding a seat in the Council of State. Nor may State Secretaries attend as representatives while holding their appointments, and political advisers in government ministries may not attend meetings of the Storting as long as they hold their positions.
Article 63
It is the duty of anyone who is elected as a representative to accept such election, unless:
- He is elected outside the constituency in which he is entitled to vote.
- He has as a representative attended all the sessions of the Storting following the previous election.
- He is a member of a political party and he is elected on a list of candidates which has not been issued by that party.
Rules for the time within which and the manner in which anyone who has the right to refuse election shall assert this right shall be prescribed by law.
It shall similarly be prescribed by law by what date and in which manner anyone who is elected as representative for two or more constituencies shall state which election he will accept.
Article 64
The representatives elected shall be furnished with credentials, the validity of which shall be adjudged by the Storting.
Article 65
Every representative and proxy called to the Storting shall be entitled to receive from the Treasury such reimbursement as is prescribed by law for travelling expenses to and from the Storting, and from the Storting to his home and back again during vacations lasting at least fourteen days.
He shall further be entitled to remuneration, likewise prescribed by law, for attending the Storting.
Article 66
Representatives on their way to and from the Storting, as well as during their attendance there, shall be exempt from personal arrest, unless they are apprehended in public crimes, nor may they be called to account outside the meetings of the Storting for opinions expressed there. Every representative shall be bound to conform to the rules of procedure therein adopted.
Article 67
The representatives elected in the aforesaid manner shall constitute the Storting of the Kingdom of Norway.
Article 68
The Storting shall as a rule assemble on the first weekday in October every year in the capital of the Realm, unless the King, by reason of extraordinary circumstances, such as hostile invasion or infectious disease, designates another town in the Realm for the purpose. Such a decision must be publicly announced in good time.
Article 69
When the Storting is not assembled, it may be summoned by the King if he finds it necessary.
Article 70
(Repealed)
Article 71
The members of the Storting function as such for four successive years.
Article 72
(Repealed)
Article 73
The Storting nominates a President, five Vice-Presidents and two Secretaries. The Storting may not hold a meeting unless at least half of its Members are present. However, Bills concerning amendments to the Constitution may not be dealt with unless at least two thirds of the Members of the Storting are present.
Article 74
As soon as the Storting is constituted, the King, or whoever he appoints for the purpose, shall open its proceedings with a speech, in which he shall inform it of the state of the Realm and of the issues to which he particularly desires to call the attention of the Storting. No deliberations may take place in the presence of the King.
When the proceedings of the Storting have been opened, the Prime Minister and the Members of the Council of State have the right to attend the Storting and, like its Members, although without voting, to take part in any proceedings conducted in open session, while in matters discussed in closed session only insofar as permitted by the Storting.
Article 75
It devolves upon the Storting:
- to enact and repeal laws; to impose taxes, dues, customs and other public charges, which shall not, however, remain operative beyond 31 December of the succeeding year, unless they are expressly renewed by a new Storting;
- to raise loans in the name of the Realm;
- to supervise the monetary affairs of the Realm;
- to appropriate the moneys necessary to meet government expenditure;
- to decide how much shall be paid annually to the King for the Royal Household, and to determine the Royal Family’s appanage which may not, however, consist of real property;
- to have submitted to it the records of the Council of State, and all public reports and documents;
- to have communicated to it the conventions and treaties which the King, on behalf of the State, has concluded with foreign powers;
- to have the right to require anyone, the King and the Royal Family excepted, to appear before it on matters of State; the exception does not, however, apply to the Royal Princes if they hold any public office;
- to review the provisional lists of salaries and pensions and to make therein such alterations as it seems necessary;
- (repealed)
- to appoint five auditors, who shall annually examine the State Accounts and publish extracts of the same in print, for which purpose the Accounts shall be submitted to the auditors within six months of the end of the year for which the appropriations of the Storting have been made, and to adopt provisions concerning the procedure for authorizing the accounts of government accounting officials;
- to appoint a person, not a member of the Storting, in a manner prescribed by law, to supervise the public administration and all who work in its service, to assure that no injustice is done against the individual citizen;
- to naturalize aliens.
Article 76
Every Bill shall first be proposed in the Storting, either by one of its own Members, or by the Government through a Member of the Council of State.
Once the Bill is passed there, a new deliberation is to take place in the Storting, which either approves or rejects it. In the latter case the Bill, with the comments appended by the Storting, shall again be taken into consideration by the Storting, which either shelves the Bill or approves it with the said comments.
Between each such deliberation there shall be an interval of at least three days.
Article 77
When a Bill has been approved by the Storting in two consecutive meetings, it is sent to the King with a request that it may receive the Royal Assent.
Article 78
If the King assents to the Bill, he appends his signature, whereby it becomes law.
If he does not assent to it, he returns it to the Storting with a statement that he does not for the time being find it expedient to give his assent. In that case the Bill must not again be submitted to the King by the Storting then assembled.
Article 79
If a Bill has been passed unaltered by two sessions of the Storting, constituted after two separate successive elections and separated from each other by at least two intervening sessions of the Storting, without a divergent Bill having been passed by any Storting in the period between the first and last adoption, and it is then submitted to the King with a petition that His Majesty shall not refuse his assent to a Bill which, after the most mature deliberation, the Storting considers to be beneficial, it shall become law even if the Royal Assent is not accorded before the Storting goes into recess.
Article 80
The Storting shall remain in session as long as it deems it necessary and shall terminate its proceedings when it has concluded its business.
In accordance with the rules of procedure adopted by the Storting, the proceedings may be resumed, but they shall terminate not later than the last Sunday in the month of September.
Within this time the King shall communicate his decision with regard to the Bills that have not already been decided (cf. Articles 77 to 79), by either confirming or rejecting them. All those which he does not expressly accept are deemed to have been rejected by him.
Article 81
All Acts (with the exception of those mentioned in Article 79) are drawn up in the name of the King, under the seal of the Realm of Norway, and in the following terms; “We, X, make it publicly known: that the decision of the Storting of the date stated has been laid before Us: (here follows the decision). In consequence whereof We have assented to and confirmed, as We hereby do assent to and confirm the same as Law under Our Hand and the Seal of the Realm.”
Article 82
The Government is to provide the Storting with all information that is necessary for the proceedings on the matters it submits. No Member of the Council of State may submit incorrect or misleading information to the Storting or its bodies.
Article 83
The Storting may obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court on points of law.
Article 84
The Storting shall meet in open session, and its proceedings shall be published in print, except in those cases where a majority decides to the contrary.
Article 85
Any person who obeys an order, the purpose of which is to disturb the liberty and security of the Storting, is thereby guilty of treason against the Country.
