STOCKHOLM – Swedish officials said Thursday they had received thousands of challenges to the result of this month’s general election, which was closely won by the Social Democrats-led opposition. Police and prosecutors said they were looking into reports of potential vote-tampering after the Social Democrats and three other opposition parties narrowly defeated prime minister Ulf Kristersson’s right-wing alliance. So far, more than 800 cases have been registered, while another 9,000 were still being processed, a representative of Sweden’s parliamentary Election Review Board said in an email.
The previous record was following the 2018 election, when 767 appeals were registered. The Sept. 13 general election gave the country’s four opposition parties — led by the Social Democrats — a narrow three-seat majority over Kristersson’s alliance, which included the far-right, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats. Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson has already been tasked by the speaker of parliament with trying to form a new government.
While Andersson struggles to unite an ideologically divided bloc, the country has been focused on allegations of election fraud. One relatively unknown representative of Sweden’s socialist Left Party — whose support is necessary for Andersson — was able to get a seat in parliament by amassing an unusual number of so called personal votes. In Sweden, while votes are cast for parties, voters can tick a box on the ballot for the individual they would prefer to represent the party in parliament.
If they do not, candidates are selected through a list decided by the party. Hundreds of personal votes meant Mohamed Abdukardir Ali from the city of Borlange got the one parliamentary seat his party won in the region, even though he was ninth on their party list. Newspaper Aftonbladet reported on suspicions that someone had handed out ballots with Ali’s name already ticked, and that voters had been offered money.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority on Thursday said they had an active investigation about “improper influence on voting in Borlange linked to the Left Party.” But the authority stressed in a statement that no arrests had been made and no one was formally suspected of a crime at this stage. In a separate statement, Swedish police said they had received 58 reports of election tampering. Police said they had noted an increase in the number of complaints coming in following the reports of the case in Borlange.
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