Swedish general election, 1998

Swedish general election, 1998
Sweden
20 September 1998

All 349 seats to the Riksdag
175 seats were needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Göran Persson Carl Bildt Gudrun Schyman
Party Social Democratic Moderate Left
Last election 161 80 22
Seats won 131 82 43
Seat change Decrease30 Increase2 Increase21
Popular vote 1,914,426 1,204,926 631,011
Percentage 36.4% 22.9% 12.0%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Alf Svensson Lennart Daléus Lars Leijonborg
Party Christian Democrats Centre Liberal People's
Last election 15 27 26
Seats won 42 18 17
Seat change Increase27 Decrease9 Decrease9
Popular vote 619,046 269,762 248,076
Percentage 11.8% 5.1% 4.7%

  Seventh party
 
Leader Marianne Samuelsson
Birger Schlaug
Party Green
Last election 18
Seats won 16
Seat change Decrease2
Popular vote 236,699
Percentage 4.5%

PM before election

Göran Persson
Social Democratic

Elected PM

Göran Persson
Social Democratic

General elections were held in Sweden on 20 September 1998.[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 131 of the 349 seats.[2]

The incumbent Social Democratic minority government, led by Göran Persson, was returned to power despite losing seats and receiving fewer votes than in their 1991 defeat. They remained in power with support from the Left Party and the Green Party. While the three left-wing parties saw a net loss of 11 seats, the Left Party nearly doubled its representation in the Riksdag. This reflected how many Social Democratic voters were dissatisfied with the policies of the government, which had implemented austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit.

Results

Party Votes % Seats +/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party1,914,42636.4131–30
Moderate Party1,204,92622.982+2
Left Party631,01112.043+21
Christian Democrats619,04611.842+27
Centre Party269,7625.118–9
Liberal People's Party248,0764.717–9
Green Party236,6994.516–2
Sweden Democrats19,6240.400
Other parties117,5522.200
Invalid/blank votes113,466
Total5,374,5881003490
Registered voters/turnout6,603,12981.4
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By municipality

References

  1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1873