completed in 1988—which was not realistic. A new municipal decision was made in October, supporting the advanced tolls starting from 1983. Rolf Bech-Sørensen stated that advance tolls would be unfair, as it was taxation of people which would not receive the benefit and that it essentially would be taxation of commuting. He therefore proposed that a referendum about advanced tolls be held at the same time as the 1983 municipal election. The National Roads Administration stated that the advanced tolls would reduce the capital need for the bridge by NOK 30 million. State Secretary Karl-Wilhelm Sirkka of the Ministry of Transport and Communications stated that the ministry would in general approve advanced tolls if they had municipal and county support. The proposal was followed up by the county council without much debate. At their general assembly on 23 January 1983, Askøy Commuter Association unanimously supported the advanced tolls. Bech-Sørensen stated that the commuter has been betrayed by their own organization and proposed that a new commuter association be established which would be opposed to the advanced tolls. This resulted in a petition being established against the advanced tolls, which gradually was formalized as the Action Against Advanced Tolls (AMF). Representatives for the movement stated that no parties had had advanced tolls in their party programs in the previous election, and that a referendum had been rejected by the council, and the people thus had not had a possibility to influence the issue. Johan Sørensen stated that it was necessary to have advanced tolls for the bridge to be included on the Norwegian Road Plan, but this was denied by the Ministry of Transport. They did, however, state that it would be easier to finance the bridge with save-up advanced tolls. By 26 April, 5,000 people had signed the petition against advanced toll. This caused the Liberal Party to take an active stance against advanced tolls. By May the petition had 6,300 signatures, equal to more than half of those entitled to vote and two-thirds of the number of people who had voted in the previous municipal election. The issue became the major issue ahead of the election. Both AMF and the toll company sent delegations to Oslo to speak with Minister of Transport and Communications Johan J. Jacobsen. Because of the lack of opposition in the elected bodies, it was expected that the Parliament would pass the advanced tolls; however,