Sweden’s preliminary election results are not expected until Wednesday at the earliest.

The Swedish election authority told news agency TT in the early hours of Monday that this was because votes from overseas and delayed votes cast ahead of time need to be counted.

A result was originally expected Sunday night.

Sweden’s eight parliamentary parties are divided into the four-party conservative bloc led by Moderate party chief Ulf Kristersson, which includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, and the left-leaning bloc led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and her Social Democrats.

The election authority put the conservative bloc 0.9 percentage points ahead with 176 seats after almost all votes were counted, compared to 173 seats for the left-leaning bloc.

Andersson and her conservative challenger Kristersson also told supporters just before 1:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Sunday) that no decision would come overnight.

Initial forecasts had put Andersson’s left-leaning bloc ahead, but after around half of the votes were counted, the results started to tilt in favour of Kristersson’s conservative bloc.

A majority of 175 seats is needed in Sweden’s 349-seat parliament. Party leaders stressed on election night that the race was not over.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the Scandinavian EU country will likely face a protracted government formation process, as it did after the 2018 election, as the parties within the blocs also disagree on several issues. 

(dpa/NAN)