1991 Swedish general election

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1991 Swedish general election
Flag of Sweden.svg
  1988 15 September 1991 1994  

All 349 seats in the Riksdag
175 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Ingvar Carlsson.jpg Carl Bildt 2001-05-15.jpg Bengt Westerberg2.jpg
Leader Ingvar Carlsson Carl Bildt Bengt Westerberg
Party Social Democrats Moderate Liberal People's
Last election1566644
Seats won1388033
Seat changeDecrease2.svg18Increase2.svg14Decrease2.svg11
Popular vote2,062,7611,199,394499,356
Percentage37.71%21.92%9.13%
SwingDecrease2.svg5.50ppIncrease2.svg3.62ppDecrease2.svg3.07pp

 Fourth partyFifth partySixth party
  Olof Johansson2.jpg Alf Svensson 2003-08-25 001 (cropped).jpg Ian Wachtmeister.JPG
BertKarlsson 2003-03-10 001.jpg
Leader Olof Johansson Alf Svensson Ian Wachtmeister
Bert Karlsson
Party Centre Christian Democrats New Democracy
Last election420
Seats won312625
Seat changeDecrease2.svg11Increase2.svg26New
Popular vote465,175390,351368,281
Percentage8.50%7.14%6.73%
SwingDecrease2.svg2.80ppIncrease2.svg4.20ppNew

 Seventh party
  Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0701-023, Berlin, Erich Honecker, Lars Werner cropped.jpg
Leader Lars Werner
Party Left
Last election21
Seats won16
Seat changeDecrease2.svg5
Popular vote246,905
Percentage4.51%
SwingDecrease2.svg1.33pp

Riksdagsvalet 1991.svg
Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.

Prime Minister before election

Ingvar Carlsson
Social Democrats

Elected Prime Minister

Carl Bildt
Moderate

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1991. [1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 138 of the 349 seats. [2] However, it was the party's worst showing since 1928 with 37.7% of the vote. [3]

Contents

The election was notable due to the rise of a new right-wing populist party named New Democracy which succeeded in securing a parliamentary mandate for the first (and only) time. The four parties of the centre-right coalition (the Centre Party, People's Party, Moderates, and Christian Democrats) were allocated a combined total of 171 seats, 17 more than the two left-wing parties' 154, but still fewer than the 175 necessary for a majority. Thus the centre-right bloc was dependent upon New Democracy to secure a parliamentary majority. It was able to do so, and the Moderates' Carl Bildt became Prime Minister.

One large factor in the shift between the blocs was that the Christian Democrats managed to reach the 4% threshold by a good margin after many previous attempts. This combined with the Green Party falling short of the threshold, meant vast changes to areas yielding wins for the blue bloc. Norrköping, Västerås and Örebro, main urban areas inside the left-wing industrial belt of central Sweden, all voted blue for the first time for generations. [3] Even so, they did only assemble pluralities as opposed to majorities in all three. The centre-right bloc also made vast gains in the capital region, the Moderate Party being the largest both in Stockholm Municipality and the surrounding Stockholm County. Led by the strong Moderate vote, Malmö also flipped to a blue plurality, overturning another historical Social Democrat stronghold.

Debates

1991 Swedish general election debates
DateTimeOrganisersModerators P  Present   I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee 
S M L C V KD NyD Refs
13 September 1991 Sveriges Television Olle Stenholm [sv] P
Ingvar Carlsson,Mona Sahlin
P
Carl Bildt
P
Bengt Westerber
P
Olof Johansson
P
Lars Werner
P
Alf Svensson
P
Ian Wachtmeister
[4]

Results

Sweden Riksdag 1991.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party 2,062,76137.71138–18
Moderate Party 1,199,39421.9280+14
Liberal People's Party 499,3569.1333–11
Centre Party 465,1758.5031–11
Christian Democratic Society Party 390,3517.1426+26
New Democracy 368,2816.7325New
Left Party 246,9054.5116–5
Green Party 185,0513.380–20
Sjöbopartiet27,6350.510New
Sweden Democrats 4,8770.0900
Labour List 3,6450.070New
Workers Party – Communists 2,9690.0500
Other parties14,3610.2600
Total5,470,761100.003490
Valid votes5,470,76198.34
Invalid/blank votes92,1591.66
Total votes5,562,920100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,413,40786.74
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, SCB

Seat distribution

ConstituencyTotal
seats
Seats won
By partyBy coalition
S M F C KD ND V RightLeftOthers
Älvsborg North 10421111541
Älvsborg South 83211153
Blekinge 531123
Bohus 124311111651
Fyrstadskretsen 1976211111081
Gävleborg 136211111571
Gothenburg 176521111971
Gotland 21111
Halland 10331111631
Jämtland 531123
Jönköping 12521121651
Kalmar 11421211641
Kopparberg 125211111561
Kristianstad11431111641
Kronoberg 9321111531
Malmöhus13541111751
Norrbotten 106111137
Örebro 125211111561
Östergötland 178411111791
Skaraborg 11421211641
Södermanland 11521111551
Stockholm County 3711125223221133
Stockholm Municipality 26893112214102
Uppsala 114211111551
Värmland 125211111561
Västerbotten 1051111146
Västernorrland 126111111471
Västmanland 11521111551
Total34913880333126251617015425
Source: Statistics Sweden

By municipality

See also

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
  3. 1 2 "Allmänna valen 1991. Del 1, Riksdagsvalet den 15 september 1991" (PDF) (in Swedish). Statistical Central Bureau . Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  4. Valet 1991 - Slutdebatten , retrieved 2024-02-01