2025 Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election

2025 Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election

8 September 2025

All 39 seats in the Sámi Parliament 20 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– NSR Silje Karine Muotka 37.2 18 +1 NKF Vibeke Larsen 32.4 14 +5 Labour Svein Atle Somby 11.4 4 −3 SáB Ann-Elise Finbog 4.8 1 0 Conservative Lars Filip Paulsen 2.8 1 +1 Flyttsamelista Berit Marie Eira 2.6 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. President of the Sámi Parliament before Silje Karine Muotka NSR

The 2025 Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election was held on 8 September 2025 to elect all 39 seats in the Sámi Parliament of Norway.

Background

Previous election

In the the previous election, held on 13 September 2021, the Norwegian Sámi Association, with Silje Karine Muotka as their presidential candidate, won a plurality of seats. After the elections, Muotka expressed support for a renewal of the previous coalition with the Centre Party and Ávjovári Moving Sámi List. The three parties presented their coalition agreement, the Beaiveálgu Declaration, on 18 October, and Muotka took office as president on 21 October.

Nordkalottfolket, a populist party led by Toril Bakken Kåven, emerged as the second largest party in that election with 9 seats, beating the Labour Party into third. Other opposition parties included the Sámi People's Party and the Progress Party.

Presidential candidacies

The Norwegian Sámi Association nominated the incumbent president, Silje Karine Muotka. Nordkalottfolket nominated Vibeke Larsen, who served as president from 2016 to 2017, first for the Labour Party and later as an independent. The Labour Party nominated Svein Atle Somby.

Electoral system

The election uses party-list proportional representation in 7 multi-member constituencies. Each constituency is given a minimum of 2 seats. The apportionment of the remaining 25 seats is based on the number of voters on the Sámi electoral roll on 30 June on the year of the last local elections in 2023, and allocated using the Sainte-Laguë method. Unlike elections to Storting, there are no levelling seats to ensure overall proportionality.

Constituency	Seats
	2021	2025
Østre	5	5
Ávjovári	7	6
Nordre	6	6
Gáisi	6	6
Vesthavet	5	5
Sørsamisk	4	4
Sør-Norge	6	7
Norway	39

Voters aged 18 or over, and registered on the Sámi electoral roll prior to 30 June 2025, are entitled to vote in the Sámi Parliament election. To register, a voter must declare that they identify as Sámi, and that they either have Sámi as their mother tongue, have a Sámi parent, grandparent or great-grandparent, or are the child of a person already on the electoral roll. Sámi people from Sweden, Finland or Russia must be registered in Norway for the past three years in order to register.

Advance voting was available from 10 August to 5 September (1 July for voters abroad or in Svalbard or Jan Mayen), and required for voters in municipalities with fewer than 30 people on the Sámi electoral roll.

Contesting parties

The table below lists political parties elected to the Sámediggi in the 2021 parliamentary election.

Name			Lead candidate	Constituencies contested	2021 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
	NSR	Norwegian Sámi Association Norgga Sámiid Riikasearvi Norske Samers Riksforbund	Silje Karine Muotka	All constituencies	31.91%	17 / 39
	NKF	Nordkalottfolket	Vibeke Larsen	All constituencies	18.28%	9 / 39
	Ap	Labour Party Bargiidbellodat Arbeiderpartiet	Svein Atle Somby	All constituencies	15.04%	7 / 39
	Sp	Centre Party Guovddášbellodat Senterpartiet	Tor Mikkola	All constituencies but Sør-Norge	9.59%	3 / 39
	SáB	Sámi People's Party Sámeálbmot Bellodat Samefolkets Parti	Ann-Elise Finbog	All constituencies but Gáisi	5.58%	1 / 39
	FrP	Progress Party Ovddádusbellodat Fremskrittspartiet	Ellen Eriksen	All constituencies	4.77%	1 / 39
	JSL	Ávjovári Moving Sámi List Johttisápmelaččaid listu Flyttsamelista	Berit Marie Eira	Ávjovári	2.38%	1 / 39

The table below shows the extraparliamentary parties contesting the election.

Name			Lead candidate	Constituencies contested	2021 result
	H	Conservative Party Olgešbellodat Høyre	Lars Filip Paulsen	All constituencies	4.31%
	SFF	People's Federation of the Saami Sámi Álbmotlihttu Samenes Folkeforbund	Tor Mainer Bergersen	Østre	1.45%
	INP	Industry and Business Party Industri- og Næringspartiet	Odd Eilert Persen	Nordre	Did not contest
	Sel	Sámi Language List Sámeeatnanlistu Sámeeatnanlista	Sissel Gaup	Ávjovári	Did not contest

Opinion polls

Polling execution			Parties
Polling firm	Fieldwork date	Sample size	NSR	NKF	Ap	Sp	SáB	FrP	H	JSL	Others	Lead
Norstat/NRK	20–27 Aug 2025	799	40 19	31 16	12 3	4 1	5 0	4 0	– 0	1 0	3 0	9
Norstat/NRK	9–19 Jul 2025	986	38	35	13	3	1	3	–	2	5	3
Norstat/NRK	24 Feb–1 Mar 2025	1,001	36.4	34.9	15.8	3.7	0.9	3.9	0.9	–	3.6	1.5
Norstat/NRK	29 Oct–6 Nov 2024	1,000	33	38	13	2	3	6	6	2	2	5
2021 election	13 Sep 2021	—	31.9 17	18.3 9	15.0 7	9.6 3	5.6 1	4.8 1	4.3 0	2.4 1	8.2 0	13.6

See also

• 2025 Norwegian parliamentary election