▲ Swedish election officials process ballots.
Sweden's left-wing opposition coalition secured a narrow victory over the ruling right-wing coalition by a margin of just one seat in the Swedish general election held on the 13th local time, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported on the 16th.
With 99% of the votes counted, the left-wing bloc led by former Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson secured 175 seats, narrowly reaching a majority of the 349 total seats. Meanwhile, the right-wing coalition led by incumbent Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stopped at 174 seats, failing to pull off a reversal.
SVT stated that with less than 1% of uncounted ballots remaining and the two blocs showing a vote gap of about 26,000, the probability of the opposition coalition securing a majority is 99.9%. The broadcaster added, "Because the possibility of the result changing at this stage is extremely low, the opposition coalition's securing of a majority of seats is definitive."
Initially, when general voting was completed, the opposition coalition was projected to secure 176 seats. However, after counting overseas absentee ballots and late-arriving postal votes, the seat difference decreased by 1 seat.
Because the gap between the two blocs was so razor-thin during the counting process, the election results were delayed until the counting of overseas votes was completed.
With the opposition's victory practically confirmed, former Prime Minister Andersson will take the lead in coalition negotiations over the coming weeks and can pursue a return to the premiership after four years.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Kristersson, who had been seeking reelection, is now in a position where he must watch the progress of the left-wing coalition's coalition talks and pin his hopes on the possibility that their government formation might fail.
The Social Democrats are seeking to form a cabinet by joining hands with the Left Party, the Centre Party, and the Green Party. However, negotiations are expected to be bumpy as the Left Party and Centre Party have shown differences on key policies such as tax policy.
Prime Minister Kristersson had promised that if he won this general election, he would include the far-right Sweden Democrats in the government for the first time in history. However, analyses suggest that this gamble backfired instead.
The Sweden Democrats, led by Jimmie Åkesson, have steadily expanded their influence since first entering parliament in 2010 by championing anti-immigration policies. This time, however, their momentum was broken as they won 17.5% of the vote, a 3 percentage point drop compared to the previous general election.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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