The 2019 local elections in Norway were the first elections to be held in 47 amalgamated municipalities. Earlier research has shown that geography is an important list-balancing criterion in national elections, yet it is an under-researched aspect of descriptive representation in local elections. In this chapter we set out to fill this gap. Using the representation literature as a point of departure, we study the effect of merger on geographic representation and investigate whether stronger emphasis on geography increased the gender or age bias of the municipal councils in newly merged municipalities. To this end, we use candidate data from all local candidates in the 2019 local elections (N = 54254) as well as historic candidate data for previous elections. We combine this with qualitative party interviews to shed light on the parties’ nomination processes. We find that candidates from the smaller municipalities are overrepresented on the party lists as well as in the municipal councils of the 47 municipalities. This is the combined effect of party nomination practices and voters’ preferences. However, somewhat surprisingly, increased emphasis on geography did not affect age or gender balance to any great extent. The results for the newly merged municipalities fit well into the national trend, featuring slightly older and more gender-equal candidate lists across time. Geography thus seems to have been an additional list-balancing criterion, on top of, and not instead of, gender and age.
Gender and age bias in digital anatomical science education