SVT exit poll puts the centre-left bloc ahead as Sweden counts the votes
Voting closed in Sweden and the first numbers arrived within minutes: the exit poll of public broadcaster SVT gave the centre-left opposition 51.3 percent against 46.8 percent for the right-wing bloc, and an election-day survey by the television channel TV4 pointed the same way. Counting is under way and the first official figures are expected within hours. Swedish exit polls have misfired before, most recently in 2022, when a projected centre-left win became a right-wing government.
Geopolitics··Evening
The polls close and the first numbers arrive
Voting in Sweden's general election ended on Sunday evening, and the first indication of the outcome came from the exit poll of SVT, the public broadcaster: 51.3 percent for the centre-left opposition against 46.8 percent for the right-wing bloc. An election-day survey by the television channel TV4 pointed the same way. Neither number is a final result; both are estimates built from voters questioned as they leave the polling station, and the Swedish Election Authority, which runs the count, was expected to release its first data within hours.[1]
The contest between the blocs tightened late
The distance the exit poll describes closes a campaign that narrowed in its final stretch. Magdalena Andersson, the Social Democratic leader, went into election day as the favourite in published polling, but a late climb by the far-right Sweden Democrats pulled the two sides together. On one side is Andersson's centre-left bloc, on the other the right-wing alliance of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who has left open the door to giving the Sweden Democrats a place in a government he leads. What the count has to settle is which of the two blocs can assemble a parliamentary majority.[2], [1]
In 2022 the exit poll did not hold
Swedish exit polls are usually indicative, and they have been wrong recently enough for the memory to stay fresh. In 2022 a poll projected that Andersson's centre-left bloc would prevail; the election went instead to a right-wing coalition under Kristersson, and he has been prime minister ever since. Counting of Sunday's ballots was under way while the evening's estimates circulated.[1]
