Swedish press: Center-left bloc wins general election by a narrow margin

Sweden's public broadcaster SVT announced that the opposition center-left bloc won the general election held on Sunday by a narrow margin, following the counting of more than 99 percent of the votes. As the proportion of electoral districts where counting has not been completed fell below 1 percent, the vote gap between the ruling right-wing bloc and the opposition center-left bloc was measured at approximately 26 thousand as of the evening hours.

In the SVT broadcast, it was stated that the probability of the left bloc led by former Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson obtaining a parliamentary majority was 99.9 percent, adding, "At this stage, the possibility of the result reversing is so low that we can now confidently say that the side that won more seats in parliament in this election is the opposition."

Center-left bloc received 49.5 percent of the vote

According to current data, the center-left bloc formed by the Social Democrats, the Center Party, the Green Party, and the Left Party has won 176 seats in the 349-seat Swedish Parliament, corresponding to 49.5 percent of the vote.

The right-wing ruling bloc led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, consisting of the Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats, the Liberals, and the Sweden Democrats, who provide external support to the current government, won 174 seats, corresponding to 48.9 percent of the vote.

In the elections, the Social Democrats remained the largest party with approximately 28 percent of the vote, followed by the Moderate Party with 19.9 percent and the Sweden Democrats with 17.5 percent.

Exit polls released immediately after voting concluded in Sunday's election had predicted that the opposition coalition would win the election with 51.3 percent. However, after the vote count began, it took days for the election results to become clear due to the time required to count votes cast from abroad and late-arriving postal ballots, as well as the extremely small margin between the two blocs.

With the opposition's victory effectively confirmed, former Prime Minister Andersson is expected to begin coalition talks in the coming weeks and conduct negotiations to return to the premiership after a four-year hiatus.

The Swedish Election Authority continues to count late-arriving and overseas votes, and the counting of all ballots is expected to continue until Thursday.

News Source: 12punto