1988 Swedish general election

1988 Swedish general election

←  1985 18 September 1988 1991  →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ingvar Carlsson Carl Bildt Bengt Westerberg Party Social Democrats Moderate People's Last election 159 76 51 Seats won 156 66 44 Seat change 3 10 7 Popular vote 2,321,826 983,226 655,720 Percentage 43.21% 18.30% 12.20% Swing 1.67 pp 3.33 pp 2.23 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Olof Johansson Lars Werner Eva Goës Birger Schlaug Party Centre Left Communists Green Last election 43 19 0 Seats won 42 21 20 Seat change 1 2 20 Popular vote 607,240 314,031 296,935 Percentage 11.30% 5.84% 5.53% Swing 2.48 pp 0.48 pp 4.03 pp
Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.
PM before election Ingvar Carlsson Social Democrats Elected PM Ingvar Carlsson Social Democrats

General elections were held in Sweden on 18 September 1988. ^[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 156 of the 349 seats. ^[2]

The Swedish Green Party won seats in the Riksdag for the first time. ^[3]

Debates

1988 Swedish general election debates
Date	Time (CEST)	Organizers	Moderators	P  Present   I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee
				S	M	L	C	V	Refs
16 Sep	21:30	Sveriges Television	Gösta Spjuth  [ sv ] Maud Zachrisson	P Ingvar Carlsson, Kjell-Olof Feldt	P Carl Bildt	P Bengt Westerber	P Olof Johansson	P Lars Werner	[4] [5]

Results

Main article: Results of the 1988 Swedish general election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Swedish Social Democratic Party	2,321,826	43.21	156	–3
	Moderate Party	983,226	18.30	66	–10
	People's Party	655,720	12.20	44	–7
	Centre Party	607,240	11.30	42	–1
	Left Party Communists	314,031	5.84	21	+2
	Green Party	296,935	5.53	20	+20
	Christian Democratic Society Party	158,182	2.94	0	–1
	Other parties	36,559	0.68	0	0
Total		5,373,719	100.00	349	0
Valid votes		5,373,719	98.76
Invalid/blank votes		67,331	1.24
Total votes		5,441,050	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,330,023	85.96
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Seat distribution

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		By party							By coalition
		S	M	F	C	V	MP		Left	Right	Others
Älvsborg North	11	4	2	2	2		1		4	6	1
Älvsborg South	6	3	1	1	1				3	3
Blekinge	6	4	1		1				4	2
Bohus	12	5	2	2	1	1	1		6	5	1
Fyrstadskretsen	20	9	5	2	1	1	2		10	8	2
Gävleborg	12	6	1	1	2	1	1		7	4	1
Gothenburg	19	7	4	3	1	2	2		9	8	2
Gotland	2	1			1				1	1
Halland	11	4	2	2	2		1		4	6	1
Jämtland	5	3	1		1				3	2
Jönköping	11	5	2	2	2				5	6
Kalmar	10	5	2	1	2				5	5
Kopparberg	12	6	1	1	2	1	1		7	4	1
Kristianstad	12	5	3	1	2		1		5	6	1
Kronoberg	6	3	1	1	1				3	3
Malmöhus	13	6	3	1	2		1		6	6	1
Norrbotten	10	6	1	1	1	1			7	3
Örebro	11	6	1	2	1	1			7	4
Östergötland	17	8	3	2	2	1	1		9	7	1
Skaraborg	11	5	2	1	2		1		5	5	1
Södermanland	9	5	2	1	1				5	4
Stockholm County	37	13	10	6	2	3	3		16	18	3
Stockholm Municipality	30	10	8	5	1	4	2		14	14	2
Uppsala	12	5	2	2	1	1	1		6	5	1
Värmland	12	6	2	1	2	1			7	5
Västerbotten	10	5	1	1	2	1			6	4
Västernorrland	12	6	1	1	2	1	1		7	4	1
Västmanland	10	5	2	1	1	1			6	4
Total	349	156	66	44	42	21	20		177	152	20
Source: Statistics Sweden

By municipality

• 
  Votes by municipality. The municipalities are the color of the party that got the most votes within the coalition that won relative majority.
• 
  Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.
• 
  Map showing the voting shifts from the 1985 to the 1988 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that formed the centre-right bloc. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the left-wing bloc.
• 
  Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.
• 
  Cartogram of vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to number of valid votes cast. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for the centre-right coalition, brighter red represents a relative majority for the left-wing coalition.

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
3. Micheletti, Michele (1989-08-01). "The Swedish elections of 1988" . Electoral Studies. 8 (2): 169–174. doi:10.1016/0261-3794(89)90034-6. ISSN   0261-3794.
4. Slutdebatter – Val-88: Riksdagspartiernas slutdebatt (in Swedish), Sweden Sveriges Television AB, Stockholm, retrieved 2024-02-01
5. "SVT, TV1 1988-09-16". Svensk mediedatabas . Retrieved 26 August 2025. 21.30 Val -88: Riksdagspartiernas slutdebatt