Election Authority: 300,000 Votes Remain - Election to Be Decided by Thursday

The election result is not yet decided. On Wednesday, a comprehensive tally is expected, during which a large number of votes that did not arrive at polling stations on election day will be counted.

These are primarily late advance votes and votes from abroad. These votes could not be included in the preliminary result on election night, but are now being collected and counted by the municipal election committees.

The catch-up count is part of the preliminary vote tally and takes place on the Wednesday after election day. If necessary, the count can continue into Thursday.

The large number of late votes is particularly interesting after an election where the margins between the political blocs are small. Even though most votes have already been counted, additional votes may lead to changes in the distribution of seats.

Overseas votes are a special part of the catch-up counting. Swedish citizens who have voted at an embassy or consulate may have sent their votes so that they did not reach the correct district before election day. These votes are therefore only being counted now.

300,000 Votes

During the final vote count at the county administrative boards, all votes are counted again. Questionable ballot papers and personal votes are also reviewed, as well as votes for smaller parties that were not separately reported on election night.

This means that the election results can change further even after the catch-up count. The final count is expected to continue over the coming week, and the parliamentary result will only be determined once all county administrative boards are finished and the Election Authority has allocated the seats.

– We expect a larger number of votes this year than in previous elections. We cannot know the number in advance, but estimate that it is close to 300,000 votes in this year’s election. This means that the catch-up count is likely to take a long time in many municipalities and that we will have an updated preliminary election result for the parliament only by Thursday, says Anna Nyqvist, Secretary General at the Election Authority.

Three Seats

The preliminary result also shows how extremely close the election is. Right now, there is a difference of only three seats between the blocs, 176 to 173.

In terms of votes, this corresponds to around 28,600 votes—just about 0.4 percentage points of the counted votes.