Swedish general election, 2022

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.

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]