Election campaign contribution

Name: Election campaign contribution
Topic: Elections

Division for Population Statistics

Country

Every two years in connection with parliamentary and municipal elections

Not relevant

Collected data are stored at Statistics Norway. Reported contributions are published on http://www.partifinansiering.no/a/

This publication is based on the election campaign contributions’ reports 2013 and later election years from the registered parties. The Political Parties Act was revised on 1 February 2013, with a requirement for all political organisations to report election campaign contributions (see definition) in election years to a central register. All organisational levels of the registered political parties are obliged to report the contributions exceeding NOK 10 000 received within four weeks and not later than the last Friday before the Election Day.

The statistics have a wide spectrum of users and applications, such as the mass media, research institutions, educational establishments, political parties and individuals.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

Political parties' financing

Political Parties Act §§ 18, 19 and Statistics Act § 10

The data collection includes all organisational levels of the registered political parties in Norway, i.e. central level, county level, municipal level and the youth organisations at central and county level. The unit in the statistics is political parties.

The source for the statistics is the Party finance register, which was established in accordance with the Political Parties Act. In accordance with the Political Parties Act § 18 (4), the register includes i.a. a summary of all donors and contributions exceeding NOK 10 000 that units of the parties have received during election years. The register also contains income statements from all registered parties at the different levels (for the period 2005-2013) and full annual accounts (from 2014) from those units which have had annual income of NOK 12 000 or more excluding government subsidy (previous to 2013 the limit was NOK 10 000). Further it includes a summary of all donors that have contributed during the fiscal year with money or gifts exceeding NOK 12 000 to parties at municipal level, NOK 23 000 to parties at county level and NOK 35 000 to parties at central level, limits refer to the fiscal year 2013 and later). Correspondingly, the register also includes any donors with whom the party has entered formal political or commercial arrangements and contributions which have been credited to organisations under the supervision of a political party unit. (cf. Political Party Act § 20.)

All reported contributions, including the NOK 10 000 donations are published on an ongoing basis at http://www.partifinansiering.no/ under the heading “Valgkampbidrag/Election campaign contribution” without regard to the time of reporting within or after the deadline.

Neither the registrar nor Statistics Norway, as the producer of the statistics, carries out any editing of the data. Thus the allocation of donations to the different groups of donors is according to the political party units themselves.

The statistical information is a calculation of the contributions reported from units at the various organisational levels to the degree these units are comprised by the Political Parties Act.

The first year of publishing was 2013 for contributions of the same year.

For the election year of 2013 the time period for the data collection refers to 1 March to 6 September 2013. From 2015 and subsequent election years, all contributions received from January 1 to the last Friday before the election date are included in the statistics.

As from the election year 2015, Statistics Norway has included only contributions exceeding NOK 10 000 in the statistics according to the definition by the acts § 18 (4). In 2013 a total of 35 donations of NOK 10 000 were reported and included in the statistics.

The data is reported by the parties to the central register on forms submitted electronically through Altinn (the Norwegian electronic public reporting portal). All organisational levels of political parties shall at their own initiative report contributions received. The uncertainty of the data is connected to the following situation:

• Some contributions may have been reported after the last Friday before the election. The data extraction on which the statistics are based can include all, just some or none of these donations.
• It is uncertain to which degree the political organisations have reported according to the law. Statistics Norway has no basis for estimating the extent of “non-reported” contributions.