Elections to the Riksdag

Elections to the Riksdag are held every four years on the second Sunday in September. This is when the citizens have the opportunity to go to the polls to choose the individuals who are to represent them in parliament.

All Swedish citizens who have reached the age of 18 by election day and who are or have been registered as resident in Sweden are eligible to vote in parliamentary elections.

There are 349 seats in the Riksdag. The number of seats each party receives should be in proportion to the number of votes the party has received. The main rule is that a particular party must receive at least four per cent of the votes in order to be represented in the Riksdag. County council and municipal council elections are held on the same day as the general election.

When the polling stations have closed on election day, election workers carry out a preliminary count of the votes cast. This is the result that is presented during election night specials in the media.

The final count is made during the following week by the county administrative boards. All counts are open to the public.

Who can be elected as a member of the Riksdag

Anyone wishing to stand for election must also be entitled to vote in the parliamentary election and be nominated by a political party. Each person who is nominated must also have given their consent to having been nominated. Members of parliament may also represent a constituency in which they do not actually reside.

The votes cast in the election are first divided between the parties and then between the candidates of each constituency. There are 29 constituencies in Sweden. These are mainly coterminous with the counties, but the County of Stockholm and the Counties of Skåne and Västra Götaland each comprise a number of constituencies.

A normal-sized constituency elects 10–12 members of the Riksdag. There are great differences between the constituencies. The largest constituency is the County of Stockholm, which had 39 members after the 2014 elections. The smallest is the County of Gotland, with two members.

How the seats are distributed in the Riksdag

The Swedish electoral system is proportional. This means that the number of seats any one party obtains in the Riksdag is proportional to the number of votes the party received in the election. There are 349 seats in the Riksdag altogether. Once the county administrative boards have counted the votes, the seats should be distributed as fairly as possible among the parties.

Threshold rule for small parties

Any one particular party must receive at least 4 per cent of the votes to be assigned a seat. This results in there being fewer small parties in the Riksdag. Any party receiving at least 12 per cent of the votes in any one constituency can participate in the allocation of seats in that particular constituency.

Seats are distributed in several steps

The 349 seats consist of 310 fixed constituency seats and 39 adjustment seats. The number of fixed constituency seats in every constituency is based on the number of people eligible to vote in the constituency. The distribution of these seats reflects the election results in each constituency.

The Election Authority allocates the fixed seats among the parties using a method known as the adjusted odd numbers method. In broad terms, the method allows the number of votes for each party to be divided by a series of numbers until all of the 310 seats are allocated.

The purpose of the 39 adjustment seats is to make sure that the distribution of seats between the parties over the whole country should be as proportional in relation to the number of votes as possible. The adjustment seats are therefore allocated in a way that corresponds to the share of votes the party has received in the country as a whole. They are allocated first according to party and then according to constituency.

The members are selected

Finally the seats are distributed among the candidates. The parties' lists of candidates are then compared with the names the voters have marked. A candidate who is low down on a list can, for example, gain a seat in the Riksdag if 5 per cent of those voting for a certain party in any one constituency have marked their name on the voting slip. If there is more than one name coming up to the 5 per cent level, the seats are allocated on the basis of the number of personal preference votes.

When there are no longer any candidates with more than five per cent personal preference votes, the seats are distributed in the order they are listed on the party lists.

A seat in the Riksdag is personal. If a member chooses to leave their party during an electoral period, they may remain in office in the Riksdag, but without party affiliation. A member of the Riksdag may not resign their mandate without the Riksdag giving its consent. In other words, each member has an obligation to remain in office. Even if a member leaves their party, they should still be able to carry out the assignment when unaffiliated to a political party.

Extraordinary elections

The Government may decide to hold extraordinary elections to the Riksdag between regular elections. The Government also chooses the date of the election. Extraordinary elections should then be held within three months of the decision. Decisions regarding extraordinary elections may not be taken by a caretaker government, that is a government that has resigned but remains in office to carry out routine tasks until a new government has been appointed.

If the Riksdag decides that it does not have confidence in the prime minister or another minister, it can direct a declaration of no confidence at that minister. If the declaration of no confidence is directed at the prime minister, the Government must resign or call an extraordinary election. The Government must call an extraordinary election within a week of the declaration of no confidence to remain in office until the election.

Not instead of ordinary elections

Extraordinary elections do not affect the procedure for ordinary general elections.

Extraordinary elections may be announced not earlier than three months after a newly elected Riksdag has convened for the first time after an election. An exception is made if the Speaker fails four times in succession to obtain the Riksdag's approval for a proposed prime minister. In these cases, the Speaker has to decide when to hold the elections after consultation with the Election Authority.

Once extraordinary elections have been called, the Speaker may, at the request of the Government, decide to suspend the work of the Riksdag until the newly elected Riksdag has been convened.

Unusual in Sweden

Extraordinary elections are unusual in Sweden. Since the advent of democracy in the early 20th century, an extraordinary election has been held just once, on 1 June 1958 to the Second Chamber. The main electoral issue at that time was the national supplementary pension.