Residents of Østre Toten, Vestre Toten, and Gjøvik will have their say on a possible new large municipality in an advisory referendum, according to multiple reports. The municipalities signed a letter of intent in February. The voting period runs from April 22 to April 29, and residents can vote both digitally and with regular ballots.
However, the digital voting solution collapsed after ten minutes. According to NRK Norge, the solution was down from around 10:10 to 10:40 due to high traffic at the voting service provider, and just before 11:00, about 3,000 people had voted digitally. Everyone who turns 16 by the end of 2026 can vote in this referendum, even though 16-year-olds do not have ordinary voting rights in parliamentary elections.
This is an advisory referendum, and it is up to the politicians in the three municipalities how they will relate to the result. In May, there will be municipal council meetings where the elected representatives will make the final decision. If there is a yes to the new Toten municipality, it could be a reality on January 1, 2028.
A new large municipality here would be a giant in Innlandet with 60,000 inhabitants, and if the yes side wins, it will be historic for the county, as all previous attempts at municipal mergers there have failed. The County Governor of Innlandet has carried out a check on the two resolutions to see that everything has been done legally. According to NRK Innlandet, the County Governor largely disagrees with the local party, stating that the resolutions are largely legal.
He also noted there is one issue related to the delegation of the referendum organization that the municipalities must look at, where a delegation was made that is probably not permitted, as it was decided that a regional election committee should have decision-making authority, which the County Governor believes is illegal since it is not an elected body. Despite this, the County Governor believes the process can probably continue as planned, and the resolution to proceed with the municipal merger is legal. In the referendum, one can vote yes, no, or blank, according to Tonje Bergum Jahr in Vestre Toten.
Then the municipal councils decide whether they will apply to merge; if they do, the matter will be finally decided by the Storting in the spring. If there is ultimately a merger, Toten municipality will be the largest in Innlandet county with about 60,000 inhabitants, becoming the 15th most populous municipality in the country.