Sweden pushes final election result by 1 day to Thursday

Charles Daly and Charlie Duxbury, Bloomberg News on Sep 15, 2026

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Sweden’s final election result is now expected on Thursday, a day later than previously anticipated, in one of the tightest parliamentary votes in the Nordic nation’s history.

The count of close to 300,000 advance and overseas votes will begin Wednesday, according to a statement from the Election Authority.

The delay prolongs uncertainty after Sunday’s unresolved vote. The Social Democrat-led center-left bloc currently holds 176 seats against 173 for Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s governing alliance, with just about 28,000 votes separating the two sides. The remaining ballots are set to determine which bloc is best placed to try to form a government.

The total to be counted from Wednesday would compare with some 200,000 such votes in the previous elections, reflecting a large number of late-arriving advance votes and an increase in votes from abroad, the authority said. Four years ago, that count didn’t swing the close result.

The tallying is likely to take a long time in many municipalities, meaning the preliminary parliamentary result probably won’t be available until Thursday, it added.

Based on how these overseas and late-arriving advance ballots have broken down historically, the most likely final outcome is that the opposition retains a lead, said Jan Teorell, a political scientist at Stockholm University.

“If you look how the seats usually move, it would be very unlikely for two seats to move from the opposition side to the government side,” he said. “Still, you can’t say for sure, and it is not impossible.”

Previous studies have suggested that overseas voters may disproportionately favor Kristersson’s Moderate Party.

Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson will face a tricky challenge to unite her allies if she gets the first shot at forming the next government. The Left Party has said it will not back a government it is not part of, while another likely ally, the Center Party, has said it will not support a government that includes the Left Party. Both parties have said they would favor Andersson over Kristersson as prime minister.

—With assistance from Christopher Jungstedt.