Swedish general election, 2022

Swedish general election, 2022

September 2022

All 349 seats to the Riksdag
175 seats are needed for a majority
Opinion polls

 
Leader Stefan Löfven Ulf Kristersson Jimmie Åkesson
Party Social Democratic Moderate Sweden Democrats
Alliance Löfven Cabinet
(Red-Greens)
The Alliance
Leader since 27 January 2012 1 October 2017 7 May 2005
Leader's seat Västernorrland Södermanland Jönköping
Last election 100 seats, 28.3% 70 seats, 19.8% 62 seats, 17.5%
Current seats 100 70 62
Seats needed 75 105 113

 
Leader Annie Lööf Jonas Sjöstedt Ebba Busch Thor
Party Centre Left Christian Democrats
Alliance The Alliance Collaboration with Löfven Cabinet The Alliance
Leader since 23 September 2011 6 January 2012 25 April 2015
Leader's seat Jönköping Västerbotten Västra Götaland
Last election 31 seats, 8.6% 28 seats, 8.0% 22 seats, 6.3%
Current seats 31 28 22
Seats needed 144 147 153

 
Leader Jan Björklund Isabella Lövin
Gustav Fridolin
Party Liberals Green
Alliance The Alliance Löfven Cabinet
(Red-Greens)
Leader since 7 September 2007 13 May 2016
21 May 2011
Leader's seat Stockholm Stockholm
Last election 20 seats, 5.5% 16 seats, 4.4%
Current seats 20 16
Seats needed 155 159

Largest party by district (left) and municipality (right)

Incumbent Prime Minister

TBD


General elections will be held in Sweden on 11 September 2022[N 1] to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag.[1] They in turn will elect the Prime Minister of Sweden.[lower-alpha 1] Regional and municipal elections will also be held on the same day.

Contesting parties

Parliamentary parties

The Social Democratic Party (S; Socialdemokraterna) is the largest political party in the Swedish Riksdag, with 101 of the 349 seats. It is the major component of the incumbent Löfven Cabinet, in which it works with the Green Party. Its current leader Stefan Löfven has been Prime Minister of Sweden since 3 October 2014, and has said he will seek a mandate to continue his Löfven Cabinet. After the 2018 election, Löfven lost a vote of non-confidence in the Riksdag and as a result the party's possible future role in a government is uncertain.

The Moderate Party (M; Moderaterna) is the second-largest party in the Riksdag with 70 seats. It was the largest governing party under Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt from 2006 to 2014. The party is involved alongside three other parties in the Alliance. Kristersson was given the mandate to try and form a government by speaker Andreas Norlén after the Löfven cabinet lost a vote of no-confidence after the 2018 election, although no government has as of early October 2018 yet been formed.

The Sweden Democrats (SD; Sverigedemokraterna) is the third-largest party in the Riksdag with 63 seats. The other Riksdag parties have repeatedly stated that they will not cooperate with the Sweden Democrats in a future government. The Sweden Democrats went with the Alliance parties to vote Löfven out of office after the 2018 election.

The Centre Party (C; Centerpartiet) is the fifth-largest party in the Riksdag with 22 seats. It was a part of the Reinfeldt cabinet from 2006 to 2014, and is involved in the Alliance. The Centre Party has been led by Annie Lööf since 2011. It was subject to public attempts by Löfven to become a cooperation party, but the party traditionally leans towards the Moderate policy positions and stayed within the Alliance after the 2014 election.

The Left Party (V; Vänsterpartiet) is the fifth-largest party in the Riksdag with 28 seats. Its current leader is Jonas Sjöstedt.

The Christian Democrats (KD; Kristdemokraterna) has been led by Ebba Busch Thor since 2015. It is involved in the Alliance. Despite polling below the 4% electoral threshold for most of the time between the elections, the party saw a boost in support in the time period immediately prior to the election, guaranteeing its presence in the Riksdag (which was seen as essential in order for the Alliance to be able to form a government).

The Liberals (L; Liberalerna) is the seventh-largest party in the Riksdag with 19 seats. It was a part of the Reinfeldt cabinet from 2006 to 2014, and is involved in the Alliance. The Liberals have been led by Jan Björklund since 2007; his leadership is being increasingly criticized within the party.

The Green Party (MP; Miljöpartiet) is the eighth-largest party in the Riksdag with 15 seats. The Green Party is the minor component of the Löfven Cabinet, alongside the Social Democrats. It is the only Swedish party to have two spokespersons, currently Gustav Fridolin (since 2011) who serves as Minister for Education, and Isabella Lövin (since 2016) who serves as Minister for International Development Cooperation. The Green Party along with the rest of the Löfven cabinet lost a vote of no-confidence in the Riksdag after the election.

Minor parties

Parties with less than 4% of the vote do not get any seat in the Riksdag.

Feminist Initiative (FI; Feministiskt Initiativ) led by former Left Party leader Gudrun Schyman, is the country's ninth-largest party, and is represented in the European Parliament following the 2014 European election. The party received 0.4% of the vote in the election, compared to 3% in the previous election 2014.

The Pirate Party (PP; Piratpartiet) won representation in the 2009–14 European Parliament but its subsequent runs for office have been less successful. It has been mentioned in some polls as the tenth-largest party, but appears to be far from having a chance to break the threshold at a domestic level.

The Alternative for Sweden (Alternativ för Sverige) is a party with currently no representation in the Riksdag. It was formed from members expelled from the Sweden Democrats in 2015, and is led by Gustav Kasselstrand. The party failed to enter the Riksdag in this election.

Electoral system

The Swedish Riksdag is made up of 349 MPs, and all are elected through open list proportional representation on multi-member party lists that are either regional (most major parties) or national (Sweden Democrats). Each of the 29 constituencies has a set number of parliamentarians that is divided through constituency results to ensure regional representation. The other MPs are then elected through a proportional balancing, to ensure that the numbers of elected MPs for the various parties accurately represent the votes of the electorate. The Swedish constitution (Regeringsformen) 1 Ch. 4 § says that the Riksdag is responsible for taxation and making laws, and 1 Ch. 6 § says that the government is held responsible to the Riksdag. This means that Sweden has parliamentarism in a constitutional monarchy—ensuring that the government is responsible to the people's representatives. A minimum of 4% of the national vote is required for a party to enter the Riksdag, alternatively 12% or more within a constituency.

Vote secrecy and party-specific ballots

In Swedish elections, the voters may choose one or several party-specific ballot in the open and only then go cross the ballot they chose in the voting booth. Two election observers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) present at the 2018 general election criticized this system, saying that this can endanger ballot secrecy and that they will look into the issue in the report that will be published in 8 weeks time.[2]

Election officials are responsible for party-specific ballot papers being present in the voting places for parties that have obtained more than one percent of the votes in the previous parliamentary election.[3] A voter may write in the party name of choice on a blank ballot paper to cast a vote if there is no access to the wanted party-specific ballot paper.[4]

Parties

The table below lists parties currently represented in the Riksdag.

Name Ideologies Leader 2018 result
Votes (%) Seats
S Swedish Social Democratic Party
Socialdemokraterna
Social democracy Stefan Löfven 28.26%
100 / 349
M Moderate Party
Moderaterna
Liberal conservatism Ulf Kristersson 19.84%
70 / 349
SD Sweden Democrats
Sverigedemokraterna
Right-wing populism
Jimmie Åkesson 17.53%
62 / 349
C Centre Party
Centerpartiet
Liberalism
Agrarianism
Annie Lööf 8.61%
31 / 349
V Left Party
Vänsterpartiet
Socialism Jonas Sjöstedt 8.00%
28 / 349
KD Christian Democrats
Kristdemokraterna
Christian democracy Ebba Busch Thor 6.32%
22 / 349
L Liberals
Liberalerna
Liberalism Jan Björklund 5.49%
20 / 349
MP Green Party
Miljöpartiet
Green politics Isabella Lövin
Gustav Fridolin
4.41%
16 / 349

Opinion polls

See also

Notes

  1. In accordance with the swedish electoral law, a snap election occuring beforehand wouldn't reset the four years counter to the next, and instead be followed by the 2022 scheduled general election.

References

  1. "The Swedish electoral system". www.val.se. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  2. Bolling, Anders (9 September 2018). "Utländska observatörer granskar valsedlar som ligger öppet". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  3. "Putting out ballot papers". Valmyndigheten. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  4. "Ballot papers". Valmyndigheten. 17 August 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.