Exit polls give edge to Sweden’s ruling party amid far-right surge

World Today

SWEDEN-POLITICS-VOTEModerates party supporters react as they follow the exit polls on TV in Stockholm on September 9, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

Hours after polls closed, the results are still too close to call in Sweden. The ruling party is in the lead, but it’s unlikely to secure enough seats to govern alone.

It could take weeks of coalition talks before the next government is formed.

CGTN’s Guy Henderson reports from Stockholm.

The leader of a far-right party that campaigned with an anti-migrant message says the party has “won” Sweden’s national election.

Jimmie Akesson claims the victory was in the number of seats the party gained in the national assembly, the Riksdagen. Akesson says he is interested in cooperating with other parties and wants to tell the head of the party that came in second, the Moderates, “how to govern the country.”

The Moderates are expected to place second in Sweden’s general election. Its leader, Ulf Kristersson, believes voters handed his party a mandate to form a new government and says the sitting prime minister should resign.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says he intends to remain in the job after his center-left party recorded its worst election performance. Lofven, who brought the Social Democrats to power in 2014, said “the results are still unclear” from the election held Sunday, but acknowledged that forming the next government could take a while.

Both the left-leaning bloc led by the Social Democrats and the center-right bloc have said they would refuse to consider the Sweden Democrats as a potential coalition partner.

With most ballots from Sunday’s election counted, it was unlikely any single party would secure a majority of the 175 seats in the Riksdagen, Sweden’s parliament. It could take weeks or months of coalition talks before the next government is formed.


Joe Twyman on the Swedish election exit polls

CGTN’s Wang Guan spoke with Joe Twyman for more insight on what the polls suggest about Sweden’s election. Twyman is the co-founder and director of Delta-poll, a public opinion polling and research firm.