STOCKHOLM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2018) Sweden is facing an unclear political future following its Sunday parliamentary elections, as only one seat separates the government and opposition blocs, according to the preliminary results.
According to a preliminary vote count, the gap between Sweden's ruling Red-Green bloc (the Social Democrats and the Green Party) and the opposition alliance of center-right parties remains minimal. The Swedish Election Commission has said that 40.6 percent of vote, or 144 seats in parliament, were gained by the Red-Green bloc, while the alliance parties got 40.3 percent of vote, or 143 seats.
The unicameral Swedish parliament has 349 members, elected for a four-year term.
To date, the Riksdag is represented by eight parties. Following the results of the last election in 2014, a minority government with the inclusion of the Social Democrats and the Green Party was formed in Sweden.
PRIME MINISTER WILL NOT STEP DOWN
The head of the ruling coalition and incumbent prime minister, Social Democrat Stefan Lofven, commenting on the election results on Monday, said that he would not resign. He also said that it was necessary to calmly start negotiations on the formation of a future government, in the conditions where none of the blocs had gathered a majority of votes.
"The results are still unclear," Lofven said after over 90 percent of the votes were counted. He also said that in the next two weeks, according to the existing procedure, he would act as head of the government to facilitate negotiations and dialogue on the government formation.
"Nothing will be determined tonight," Lofven said.
Meanwhile, Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Swedish opposition alliance, has already demanded the resignation of the sitting government.
"The government should resign. I respect Stefan Lofven. But he should resign now," Kristersson said as quoted by the Swedish SVT tv channel.
At the same time, Jimmie Akesson, leader of the third largest Swedish political party, Sweden Democrats, expressed his readiness to start a dialogue on the formation of the government with the opposition alliance.
The party is not a member of any coalition and so far other parliamentary parties, both leftist and right-centrist, have tried to avoid cooperation with Sweden Democrats. During the election campaign, the parties continued to maintain the same positions.
Commenting on the results of the elections on Monday morning, many speakers noted that the final vote count could still clarify the election results. The results will be published on Wednesday. Many analysts of the Swedish elections agree that forming a new government will be difficult.
The first meeting of the Riksdag will take place in two weeks, and the vote on the candidate for prime minister should take place on September 25 at the earliest or no later than two weeks after the parliament begins working.
