Leijonborg wins Malmö seat despite living outside constituency

Lars Leijonborg of the Liberals has won Malmö’s seat in the Riksdag despite not living in the electoral constituency, SVT News reports. Political scientist Erik Wångmar said the arrangement was not ideal.

“It becomes somewhat strange when a constituency is represented by someone who does not live there,” Wångmar, of Linnaeus University, said.

The Liberals ran both a local Malmö list and a national list in the Malmö municipality constituency. The national list was topped by Simona Mohamsson and Romina Pourmokhtari, with Leijonborg in third place.

The national list received more votes in Malmö than the local list, according to Wångmar. Because Mohamsson and Pourmokhtari were elected in other constituencies, the Malmö seat went to Leijonborg instead of Simon Chrisander, who topped the Liberals’ local list.

Chrisander fell short of personal vote threshold

Chrisander came close to securing the five per cent of personal votes needed to win a seat directly. Wångmar said his chances were reduced because many Liberal voters in Malmö cast personal votes for Mohamsson on the national list.

“He would have needed 30 to 40 more personal votes in Malmö to be elected directly,” Wångmar said.

Wångmar said it was not clear whether Liberal voters understood how the two lists could affect the result. He added that the party might have promoted the local list differently, depending on how it conducted its campaign.

The use of national lists is not unique to Malmö or the Liberals. Wångmar said the Liberals used a national list in every constituency, while the Social Democrats and Left Party are among the parties that usually do not do so.

Criticism of the electoral system

Since the introduction of the unicameral Riksdag in the 1970s, there has been no requirement for elected members to live in the constituency they represent.

Wångmar criticised the removal of that requirement, saying constituencies exist so that all parts of the country send members to the Riksdag.