On 11 September, Norway will hold its municipal and country council elections for 2023. For those living in Sandnes, it means you can vote for the parties and persons you want to be represented in Sandnes municipal council and the Rogaland county council.
All Norwegian citizens who have reached 18 years of age before the end of 2023 are eligible to vote, but you can also vote without being a Norwegian citizen if you have reached 18 years of age before the end of 2023 and have been registered in the Central Population Register as resident in Norway for the last three years before election day. To find out more about how to and where to vote in Sandnes, visit the website of the Norwegian Directorate of Elections.
We encourage all those who are eligible to vote to exercise your right to vote and help shape the society that you want to live in. Below is more information about what you can expect if you decide to vote for SV in Sandnes.
Sandnes Socialist Left Party (Sandnes SV) considers that Sandnes is a diverse municipality where close to one in every four resident is an immigrant or born in Norway to immigrant parents, out of which more than half have come to Sandnes from countries outside Europe. This diversity is positive and contributes new ideas, resources, and opportunities. Sandnes has to be a municipality free of racism and ethnic discrimination, and which works actively to strengthen ethnic and cultural diversity.
In Sandnes, we will work to:
Strengthen diversity and integration. We want to increase financial support for organisations that work for increased diversity and inclusion of minorities and vulnerable groups in Sandnes. We believe sports and cultural arenas are especially important to prevent exclusion on the basis of ability, language barriers, or financial challenges.
Prioritize free full-time after-school care (SFO) for all children in 1. to 4. grade. SFO is an important arena for development, learning and socializing in a safe environment and with trained personnel. All children in Sandnes should be included in SFO.
Strengthen the public education system. We want inclusive schools with more physical activity, homework at school, cultural activities, and meal service. We believe children who eat well, learn well.
Work for the right to full-time permanent positions and increased baseline staffing levels in public services. We believe increased staffing will ensure more stability and predictability, and less sick leave, which results in better services. It will also reduce the need to purchase services from external staffing agencies, which cost more than having people directly employed by the municipality.
Strengthen the public library and cultural education. We consider Sandnes public library to be understaffed and under-resourced to meet the needs for books and events from the population in Sandnes. We want to drop late-fees for late returns, and we want cultural education activities to be offered closer to where people live in the boroughs of Sandnes.
Be an inclusive municipality. We believe Sandnes can resettle more refugees, and we want to strengthen and secure the operations of Sandnes Learning Center, so that refugees, asylum-seekers, and labor immigrants can learn the language and local customs, which again will facilitate their integration in Sandnes.
Protect agricultural areas and nature conservation, in particular the accessible natural recreational areas near the city centre (Sandnesmarka).The protection of fertile soil must be stronger than plans and wishes to have easy access to new areas for residential or commercial development. We want to upgrade and secure existing roads instead of building new ones. We say no to more wind turbines in Sandnes, and we will continue to work to reduce the noise pollution from the wind turbines on Vardafjell.
Address the nature- and climate crisis. We believe Sandnes should not dedicate any more areas for holiday homes and cabins. We want to the new road connection between Vagle and E39 to be put in tunnel to avoid harming important areas for bio-diversity and recreation. We want cruise-ships to be connected to land-power if they are docking in Sandnes, and that nature and climate considerations should be the most important factors for the development of a sustainable tourism industry in Sandnes.
Strengthen environment-friendly public transportation. We want a new train stop on Lura, double train tracks between Sandnes and Egersund, and to re-open the train line to Ålgård (Algårdbanen). We want to prioritize better solutions for walking and cycling, and a good public transportation network, in traffic planning.
Strengthen equality. We consider it important to increase the share of women in the Sandnes municipal council, which in the current period has had only 32.7% women. Out of 16 parties that run for election in Sandnes, only three parties have a woman as their top candidate. Sandnes SV is one of them. In addition, we want to reduce the wage gap in the municipality by instituting pay rises in fixed amounts, and not in percentages.