Tight race for power as Sweden holds elections

STOCKHOLM (AA) – Sweden is voting on Sunday in an election expected to be a close contest between the ruling center-left Social Democrats and a right-wing bloc that includes a far-right party with growing clout in the country.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600GMT) and voters will be able to cast their ballots until 8 p.m. (1800GMT). Results are expected by midnight.

With 349 seats in parliament up for grabs, opinion polls indicate the Social Democrats hold a slight edge and are likely to get between 49.7% to 51.6% of the votes.

Estimates for the opposing right-wing bloc vary between 47.6% to 49.4%.

Sweden’s last elections in 2018 led to a stalemate that lasted four months until the Social Democrats managed to form a minority government.

Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s prime minister and leader of the Social Democrats, said she was hopeful that voters were convinced that hers is “a party for ordinary people, for workers, with good safety nets, good jobs and a good future.”

“It’s a very close race, so it’s up to the Swedish people to decide,” she said at a rally in in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby on the eve of the vote.

The Social Democrats have dominated Swedish politics since the 1930s, but face an unprecedented challenge with the surging popularity of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a party that could become the second-largest in the country after this election.

Ulf Kristersson, leader of the traditional right-wing Moderates, is expected to partner with the Sweden Democrats to form a government, having deepened ties with the far-right anti-immigrant force since 2019.

He will also cooperate with two other smaller right-wing parties, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals.

“Today you have the opportunity to put an end for eight lost years and give me the chance to put Sweden on a new course,” he said on social media.

Urging people to vote, Kristersson said he aims to be the “prime minister of Sweden as a whole.”

Center Party leader Annie Loof reminded citizens of their responsibility of “choosing the way for which society you want Sweden to be.”

With her party, voters will get liberal politics “without xenophobia,” she said on social media.

“Vote for the climate, humanity, gender equality and rural areas,” Loof added.