Here you learn how elections work in Sweden and who may vote. You also read about the political parties and how they win seats in riksdagen (the Swedish parliament).
Elections in Sweden
The parties disagree about how Sweden should be governed. Every party wants the people to vote for it. Each party has candidates. A candidate is a person who stands in the election for their party. Parties want to get their candidates into riksdagen, into the regions, into the kommuner (municipalities) and into the European Parliament.
Riksdagen is elected every 4 years. In the election to riksdagen, the people decide who will sit there. Every 4 years, people also elect regionfullmäktige and kommunfullmäktige, the assemblies for a region and a kommun. Fullmäktige is a group of elected politicians who make decisions there. The European Parliament is elected every 5 years.
Who may vote?
The right to vote means you may vote in an election. In the election, you vote for the party you agree with most. To have the right to vote, you must be at least 18 years old. For the election to riksdagen, you must also be a Swedish citizen.
In elections to the kommun and the region, you may vote even if you are not a Swedish citizen. But then you must have been folkbokförd (registered as a resident) in Sweden for 3 years in a row before election day. Folkbokförd means you are registered as living in Sweden. Are you a citizen of another EU country or another Nordic country? Then it is enough to be folkbokförd here.
EU citizens who are folkbokförd in Sweden can vote here in the European Parliament election. The rules for the right to vote are therefore different for different elections.
Referendums
Sometimes the people get to vote on a particular question. This is called a referendum. A referendum can apply to the whole of Sweden, a region or a kommun. The result is advisory, that is, advice to the politicians. They do not have to do what the people voted for.
In 2003, Sweden held a referendum on the euro. The euro is a currency, a type of money. The question was whether Sweden should have the euro instead of the krona. Most people voted no, and Sweden kept the krona.
How you vote
Before the election, a polling card is sent to everyone who has the right to vote. The polling card shows where your polling station is. A polling station is the place where you vote on election day. You can also vote before election day, at certain places. This is called advance voting.
A ballot paper is the slip of paper you vote with. At the polling station there are ballot papers from many parties. No one may see how you vote. That is why you make your choice behind a screen, in a voting booth. The fact that the vote is secret is called the secrecy of the ballot.
Political parties
A political party is a group of people with shared ideas. They want society to be governed in a certain way. The party puts forward proposals for solutions and works on its most important issues. Because the parties think differently, voters can choose between different proposals.
Anyone can be active in a party. Anyone who wants to can become a member and influence the party's policies. You can also join with others and form a new party.
The time before an election is called the election campaign. During this time, the parties try to win voters' support. They arrange debates and meetings, make advertisements and run campaigns. They often stand in streets and squares to talk about their policies.
Proportional elections
Sweden has a proportional electoral system. This means a party wins seats in riksdagen, regionfullmäktige and kommunfullmäktige in proportion to its share of the votes. Such a seat is called a mandat. A person who holds a mandat in riksdagen is called a member.
One example: a party that gets 20 per cent of the votes also gets 20 per cent of the seats. This means the parties often have to work together. Together they can form a majority that supports their proposals. A majority means that more than half vote yes.
There is a threshold for entering riksdagen. A party needs at least 4 per cent of all votes. This threshold is called fyraprocentsspärren (the four per cent threshold). The idea is that riksdagen should not have too many parties. This makes it easier to form a majority that lasts.
The parties in riksdagen
Up to the 2026 election, 8 parties sat in riksdagen. Here they are in alphabetical order, from A to Ö. First come Centerpartiet (C), Kristdemokraterna (KD), Liberalerna (L) and Miljöpartiet (MP). Then come Moderaterna (M), Socialdemokraterna (S), Sverigedemokraterna (SD) and Vänsterpartiet (V). The letters in brackets are a short form of the party's name.
In elections to the kommun and the region, there are often local parties. A local party only has policies for its own kommun or region. It has no policies for the whole of Sweden.