ELECTION RESULT IN NORWAY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25933, 13 October 1949, Page 5

ELECTION RESULT IN NORWAY

Labour’s Majority Increased SEATS WON FROM COMMUNISTS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 12.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 12. Final returns for all towns and most of the rural districts show that in Norway’s Parliamentary election the Communists have been heavily defeated. They have lost 10 of their 11 seats to the Labour Party, led by the Prime Minister (Mr Einar Gerhardsen), to give it undisputed command of the new Assembly. In the old Assembly the Labour Party had an over-all majority of only two. The distribution of seats, with previous totals in parenthesis, is:—Labour, 86 (76); Liberals, 22 (20); Conservatives, 21 (25); Agrarians, 12 (10); Christian People’s Party, 8 (3); Communists. 1 (11). Mr Gerhardsen, in a broadcast speech, warned the losing parties against becoming bitter and resentful and his own party against, becoming high-handed. He appealed for cooperation. He added that Norway, because of its pro-Labour vote, would be able to continue the policy it had pursued since the - war ended. The British United Press correspondent in Copenhagen says that Denmark’s Labour Government is expected to dissolve Parliament and call a general election about the middle of November. Officials said that the Norwegian results had removed the Danish Labour Government’s doubts about the advisability of an early appeal to the Danish electorate.