Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Asle Amundsen


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure)  CAPTAIN RAJU  (✉)   07:41, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Asle Amundsen

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I am nominating this article as a test case to seek input on the notability of people who serve as "vararepresentant" in the Norwegian Storting. Essentially, a vararepresentant is a deputy or substitute to a regular representative at the Storting. They are a person who was on the candidate list for their party in their respective county, but failed to be elected because the party did not garner enough votes. describes it a lot better than I do in this discussion about vara at WikiProject Norway. I will quote them here: "they are simply the next person on the list of candidates for the same party in the same county that didn't get elected or is already serving as vararepresentant. If the party had just gotten more votes in that county, they would have been proper representatives." The function of the vara is to step in for their regular representative when that person is away or unavailable. There are two types of cases where that occurs: temporary cases where their regular rep is sick or on vacation, and long-term cases where their regular rep is appointed to the Norwegian cabinet and the vara steps in to take their place.

My question is, does functioning as a vararepresentant give someone presumed notability per WP:NPOL?

It seems reasonably clear to me that a vara who substituted for their representative in the long term should probably be considered notable per WP:NPOL, because they participate in discussion and voting like regular representatives, indicating that they are "members" of the legislature, per criteria 1 of WP:NPOL. However, I am not sure if a vara who only ever substitutes short-term (or indeed, never at all) would be considered a "member" of the legislature, per criteria 1. They don't participate in the legislation process, and they are distinctly not elected officials.

Thoughts? &spades;PMC&spades; (talk) 05:13, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Speedy keep, MP. Expanded a little. Geschichte (talk) 22:00, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep, met in parliament. Manxruler (talk) 22:58, 7 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Politicians-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:55, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Norway-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 14:55, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Kurykh (talk) 01:08, 15 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep Considering members of sub-national legislative bodies, at least in countries that are Federal like the US, India and such (I am not sure how it applies to more unitary countries like France) are considered default notable according to notability of politician rules, I think this position is enough to be considered notable.John Pack Lambert (talk) 16:11, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep National-level representative who actually sat in parliamentary meetings, even if only briefly. If the nominator wanted a test case for this type of deputy who are never pressed into service, that might have a different result.  Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 17:44, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Keep. I can't claim to have any special expertise on how the Norwegian political system works, but I have to agree with the commenters on this. A candidate who holds the distinction of being a potential vara only on paper, and has not actually performed any of the duties of the position as of yet, would not qualify for a Wikipedia article — but if he has sat in parliamentary sessions, and participated in committees and on and so forth, then the same public interest reasoning that applies to the "official" representatives should also apply to him. The article needs improvement, certainly, but for all intents and purposes he has served in the Storting even if he hasn't been a permanent member of it yet. Bearcat (talk) 18:18, 20 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.