Storting

The Storting (Norwegian: Stortinget, literally "the great thing") is the supreme legislature of Norway, located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members, and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional representation in nineteen plural member constituencies. The assembly is led by a presidium of a president and five vice presidents; since 2009 Dag Terje Andersen has been president. The members are allocated to twelve standing committees, as well as four procedural committees. Almost all public agencies of Norway are subordinate to the government, but three ombudsmen, the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee and the Office of the Auditor General are directly subordinate to parliament.

Parliament was established by the Constitution of Norway in 1814 and has since 1866 met in the Parliament of Norway Building, designed by Emil Victor Langlet. Parliamentarianism was established in 1884, and until 2009 practiced qualified unicameralism with two chambers: the Lagting and the Odelsting. Following the 2009 election, seven parties are represented in parliament: the Labour Party (64 representatives), the Progress Party (41), the Conservative Party (30), the Socialist Left Party (11), the Centre Party (11), the Christian Democratic Party (10) and the Liberal Party (2).