Swedish opposition leads razor close election count
Monday 14th September 2026 on 09:15 in
Sweden
Sweden’s opposition held a narrow lead early Monday, with 176 parliamentary seats compared with 173 for the Tidö parties, according to preliminary results from the Swedish Election Authority reported by SVT.
With 94 percent of districts counted, only 28,600 votes separated the two blocs. A record number of advance votes remains to be counted, meaning the final result may not be known until later in the week.
The Social Democrats were the largest party with 28.1 percent of the vote, down 2.3 percentage points. It was the party’s lowest result since 1928. The Centre Party received 7.1 percent, the Green Party 6.1 percent and the Left Party 8.2 percent, with all three opposition parties gaining support.
On the Tidö side, the Moderate Party won 19.9 percent, the Christian Democrats 6.2 percent and the Liberals 5.4 percent. The Sweden Democrats received 17.6 percent, a decline of three percentage points and the first time the party has lost support in an election.
The Liberals’ result was one of the election’s biggest surprises. After falling to 1.8 percent in an SVT and Verian poll in February, the party recovered in the weeks before the election and finished well above the parliamentary threshold.
The Election Authority said the count could continue well into the week. The final overseas votes and late-arriving advance votes will be counted on Wednesday. More than 3.6 million people voted in advance this year, a record, and the authority said there had been problems getting some advance votes to polling stations.
The close result is expected to make government formation difficult. The Social Democrats would need support from both the Centre Party and the Left Party, which do not want to cooperate with each other. Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson said he would contact other party leaders to explore whether a functioning government could be formed.
Once the final result has been confirmed, the new parliament will elect a speaker, who will then propose a prime minister.