Political Elections and Parties

Elections to the Riksdag, the regionfullmäktige, and the kommunfullmäktige are held every four years, all at the same time. Elections to the European Parliament are held every five years. To be entitled to vote, a person must have turned 18. To vote in the Riksdag election, a person must also be a Swedish citizen. To vote in kommun and region elections, a person does not need to be a Swedish citizen, but must have lived in Sweden and been registered as a resident (folkbokförd) there for a total of at least three years — EU citizens or citizens of a Nordic country only need to be registered as residents in the country, with no time requirement. EU citizens vote in the European Parliament election in the country where they are registered as residents.

Sometimes referendums are held on a particular issue, nationally, in a region, or in a kommun. Referendums in Sweden are advisory — politicians are not obliged to follow the result. In 2003, Sweden held a referendum on replacing the Swedish krona with the euro; the people voted no, and Sweden kept the krona.

Anyone entitled to vote receives a voting card (röstkort) by mail before the election, with information about which polling station to go to, but it is also possible to vote early at special locations. At the polling station there are ballot papers for the different parties, and voting takes place behind a screen so that no one else can see which party a person chooses — elections are secret.

Political parties bring together people with shared ideas about how society should be governed. The parties propose different solutions and pursue the issues they consider important, giving voters different alternatives to choose between. Anyone can become a member of a party to influence politics, or start a new party together with others. Sweden has proportional elections: parties get seats in the Riksdag or in the regional and kommun councils based on the share of votes they receive. For a party to enter the Riksdag, it needs at least four percent of the votes nationwide — this rule exists to prevent too many parties from entering, which would make it harder to create stable majorities.

The parties that sat in the Riksdag up to the 2026 election were, in alphabetical order: Centerpartiet (C, the Centre Party), Kristdemokraterna (KD, the Christian Democrats), Liberalerna (L, the Liberals), Miljöpartiet (MP, the Green Party), Moderaterna (M, the Moderate Party), Socialdemokraterna (S, the Social Democrats), Sverigedemokraterna (SD, the Sweden Democrats), and Vänsterpartiet (V, the Left Party). In region and kommun elections, special local parties also appear that are only active in a particular region or kommun.