Exit polls in Sweden forecast a victory for the center-left bloc

According to exit polls, Sweden’s centre-left bloc appears set to come to power following the election, the outcome of which was of decisive importance, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.

Details

If these results are confirmed, a new left-leaning government will likely be formed, led by the Social Democratic Party and supported by the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet), the Centre Party and the Greens.

This would also mean that voters had decisively rejected the incumbent centre-right coalition government and the far-right policies of the Sweden Democrats (SD). If the exit poll data are accurate, the SD has dropped from second to third place among the country’s political parties.

According to the Valu exit poll conducted by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, the left-wing parties led by Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson are projected to receive 51.3% of the vote. The right-wing parties led by Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson are projected to receive 49.6%.

This was preceded by an exceptionally heated and polarised election campaign, accompanied by personal attacks by the leaders against one another, accusations of spreading disinformation and the use of campaign advertisements inspired by the American MAGA movement. Polls indicated an extremely close race: in one of them, the gap between the left and right blocs was just 0.3 percentage points.

Polling stations across the country opened at 8:00 local time. Voter turnout was high: a record 3.6 million people took part in early voting, while long queues were observed at some polling stations.

The first data on the results appeared at 20:00 local time, when the exit poll results were published. An hour later, a projection from SVT was expected. The first preliminary vote-count results were due to be released between 22:30 and 23:00. Whatever the election result, coalition-formation negotiations are expected to take weeks, if not months.

Elections in Sweden could bring the far right into government - Reuters13.09.26, 13:52 • 13476 views

In addition

Earlier, the head of the Swedish Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Aron Emilsson, stated that all eight parties in the Swedish Parliament were demonstrating a united position on supporting Ukraine.