Ousted : Thorbjoern Jagland , a former Norwegian prime minister of the Labour Party , has been demoted as chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee . The committee that awards the . Nobel Peace Prize has controversially demoted its chairman for the first . time in the 114-year history of the award . Thorbjoern Jagland , a former Norwegian prime minister of the Labour Party , has chaired the five-member panel since 2009 but was ousted after his right-wing opponents won a majority on the prestigious panel . He will now revert to being a member of the committee that has received a. near-record 276 nominees for the 2015 prize . Kaci Kullmann Five , a former leader of Norway 's ruling . Conservative Party , will now take over . The country 's right-wing parties . gained a new representative recently , giving them a 3-2 majority and allowing them to make . the unprecedented demotion at the first meeting of 2015 . Declining to explain the decision , Ms Five said : 'The committee chooses a leader every year . 'This year is a. new committee . Jagland has been a good leader for six . years . ' Right-wing parties in the country , who won a parliamentary election in . 2013 to oust a Labour-led government , have long disliked . Jagland , who was prime minister from 1996 . Mr Jagland had attracted criticism after overseeing a number of controversial of awards , including ones made to Barack Obama in 2009 - less than a year after the U.S. president took office - to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 and to the European Union in 2012 . No serving chair has ever been ousted since the awards were . first made in 1901 , even with shifting political majorities . Newly appointed chair of The Norwegian Nobel Committee , Kaci Kullmann Five ( pictured left ) and secretary of the committee Olav Njolstad ( right ) arrive for a press briefing at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo . The . committee is appointed in line with the strength of the parties in . Norway 's parliament . Asle Sveen , a historian and Nobel expert , . said of Mr Jagland 's demotion : ' I do n't like it . ' Mr Jagland is also head of the 47-nation Council of Europe , . which promotes democracy in Europe , and some right-wing . parliamentarians say that amounts to a conflict of interest in . deciding who receives the $ 1 million Nobel prize . Controversy : Mr Jagland had attracted criticism after Barack Obama triumphed in 2009 , less than a year after the U.S. president took office .
Labour Party 's Thorbjoern Jagland ousted as chairman of the committee . Set to be replaced by Conservative rival Asle Sveen Five . No serving chair has ever been removed since awards first made in 1901 .