Exit polls point to lead for left-wing bloc in Sweden's election
Voter surveys conducted after Sunday's Swedish parliamentary election show the Social Democrat-led opposition bloc slightly ahead of the right-wing bloc, while support for a nationalist-conservative party has dropped.
Sweden held parliamentary elections on Sunday, and initial voter surveys conducted at polling stations point to a tight but left-leaning outcome. Public broadcaster SVT's poll shows the four opposition left-wing parties, led by the Social Democrats, together drawing 51.3% support, compared with 46.8% for the four right-wing parties.
A separate survey by commercial broadcaster TV4 shows a similar pattern, with the left-wing bloc credited with 51.3% of the vote and the right-wing bloc with 47%. The narrow gap between the two sets of figures suggests the race remains close, though both broadcasters' polls point in the same direction — a modest edge for the left.
Support wanes for nationalist-conservative party
A notable shared finding in both polls is declining support for the Sweden Democrats, a nationalist-conservative party that has been a significant force on Sweden's right in recent years. According to SVT's poll, the party received 17.2% of the vote, while TV4's survey put the figure slightly higher, at 18.5%. Either way, the numbers point to a weakening of the party's standing compared with previous measurements.
It should be noted that these figures come from voter surveys conducted at polling stations immediately after people cast their ballots, so they may differ from the official, final election results expected to be announced later. Such surveys, however, typically provide a fairly reliable picture of the overall direction of an election outcome.
