Sweden’s general election remained unresolved on Monday, with the left-wing opposition bloc holding a narrow lead over the four-party right-wing alliance, according to the BBC. No major media organisation had declared a winner as counting continued.
Preliminary figures from Sweden’s electoral authority showed the bloc led by Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson with 176 parliamentary mandates, compared with 173 for the alliance supporting conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Earlier figures had placed the left-wing side ahead by about 20,000 votes, although the margin remained too small to determine who would form the next government.
The count is expected to continue on Wednesday, when late-arriving early votes and ballots from abroad will be included. The BBC reported that about 28,000 votes separated the blocs in the current count, while the number of ballots to be added was not yet known. In 2022, more than 220,000 votes were included in the later count.
Kristersson told supporters that voters had expressed their view but that there was not yet a final result. Andersson urged her supporters to wait, while saying that a new government would take office if the current figures held.
Sweden’s proportional representation system elects seats in the Riksdag, with parties required to win at least 4% of the vote to enter parliament. Coalition and minority governments are common because the main groupings each include four parties.
Kristersson has governed with support from the Sweden Democrats, a hard-right party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement. He has promised cabinet positions to the party if he remains prime minister. The campaign focused on national security, gang crime and welfare spending. Early results indicated that both the Social Democrats and Sweden Democrats had lost support, while smaller parties in the left-wing bloc had gained ground. Turnout was approximately 80%, four percentage points below the 2022 election.