Uncertain voters could decide Sweden’s election

About 650,000 Swedish voters have not yet decided how to vote in the 2026 election, and the group could determine the result, SVT reports.

With less than two weeks to go before the election, SVT spoke to undecided voters in Skövde about when they would make up their minds.

Gunnar Lindström said he was still considering his options.

“I am still open. Of course, I have certain ideas from previous years, but that can change,” he said.

Leif Wahlander has decided which political bloc he supports, but not which party. He plans to make that choice at the polling station.

“It might be like when you go shopping for food. What should you choose? Then, when you are standing there, it will be: ‘Yes, I’ll take that one,’” he said.

Rickard Andersson said he might also decide only when he has the ballot paper in his hand.

“It might be when you are standing there with the ballot paper in your hand,” he said.

Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson, a professor of political science, said modern voters often do not feel as strongly attached to a particular party. Instead, they may be considering two or three parties.

“This is the group the election campaign is aimed at. They would rather wait, which is entirely rational,” he said.

Ten per cent of voters were undecided before the 2022 election, equivalent to about 650,000 people. The proportion is the same ahead of the 2026 election, according to a survey by Indikator Opinion for Swedish Radio’s Ekot.

According to Ekengren Oscarsson, the group is large enough to decide the election. He said it did so in the previous election, when the result was particularly close.

“It was so close last time that this group really gave the Kristersson camp its victory. It won most of these voters, and that was enough,” he said.

Two-thirds of the undecided voters identify with the political centre and have no strong left or right affiliation, Ekengren Oscarsson said. Parties seeking to win them over should therefore appeal to centrist voters, he said.