Vote counting in Sweden's election to be completed on Thursday
In Sweden, the counting of the last early votes and ballots cast abroad in the parliamentary election is due to be completed on Thursday. The Local Sweden reports, citing the country’s Election Authority.
Reasons for the delay
The Election Authority explained the delay by the large number of overseas votes and the late arrival of many early voting ballots at polling stations. Anna Nyqvist, head of the agency’s administrative office, said more votes are expected this year than in the previous election. In her estimate, their number could reach nearly 300,000.
Nyqvist noted that because of this, the count in many municipalities may take a long time. Updated preliminary results of the parliamentary election are expected on Thursday.
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How ballots are counted
In Sweden, municipal election boards are responsible for conducting voting and counting ballots. They also process early and overseas ballots that could not be counted on election night.
Such ballots are counted not at individual polling stations, but in 314 combined districts. The counted votes are then sent to county administrative boards for verification.
Preliminary distribution of seats
At the time of publication, four opposition parties had 176 seats, while the Tidö parties supporting the incumbent government had 173. Gustav Karreskog Rehbinder, a mathematician and founder of Vera Policy whose forecast was used by public broadcaster SVT on election night, told TV4 that the allocation of the final seat remains uncertain. At the same time, he considers it unlikely that the ballots to be counted on Wednesday and Thursday will provide government supporters with the two additional seats needed for victory.
