Centre-left opposition bloc leads in Swedish vote, poll shows

What the report says

Sweden’s centre-left opposition bloc was projected to take the lead in the country’s general election, according to an exit poll reported by Al Jazeera from public broadcaster SVT. The poll put the centre-left on 51.3 percent, ahead of the right-wing bloc on 46.8 percent. A separate election-day poll from broadcaster TV4 also indicated the centre-left was ahead. Voting ended at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, and official counting was underway, with early results expected from the Swedish Election Authority within hours.

The race had narrowed in the final weeks after earlier polling suggested a larger advantage for the opposition, led by Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson, over Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s conservative four-party alliance. That alliance includes the nationalist Sweden Democrats, who have not previously held cabinet posts but could have entered government if the right had won a majority.

Al Jazeera noted that Swedish exit polls can be directionally useful but are not always accurate, pointing to the 2022 election as an example. If confirmed, a centre-left victory would be a setback for Sweden’s right-wing bloc and could limit the Sweden Democrats’ chances of joining government. The result would also matter more broadly because left-leaning parties in Europe have faced gains by right-wing and far-right forces in recent elections.