Swedish general election, 1991

Swedish general election, 1991

15 September 1991
All 349 seats to the Riksdag 175 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   150x150px Leader Ingvar Carlsson Carl Bildt Bengt Westerberg Party Social Democratic Moderate Liberal People's Alliance Left-Wing Centre-Right Centre-Right Last election 156 66 44 Seats won 138 80 33 Seat change 18 14 11 Popular vote 2,062,761 1,199,394 499,356 Percentage 37.7% 21.9% 9.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px Leader Olof Johansson Alf Svensson Ian Wachtmeister Bert Karlsson Party Centre Christian Democrats New Democracy Alliance Centre-Right Centre-Right Independent Last election 42 0 New party Seats won 31 26 24 Seat change 11 26 24 Popular vote 465,175 390,351 368,281 Percentage 8.5% 7.1% 6.7%   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Lars Werner Jan Axelsson Margareta Gisselberg Party Left Green Alliance Left-Wing Left-Wing Last election 21 20 Seats won 16 0 Seat change 5 20 Popular vote 246,905 185,051 Percentage 4.5% 3.4%
Prime Minister before election Ingvar Carlsson Social Democratic Elected Prime Minister Carl Bildt Moderate

General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1991. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 138 of the 349 seats.

The election was notable due to the rise of a new right-wing party named New Democracy which succeeded in securing a parliamentary mandate for the first (and last) time. The four parties of the centre-right coalition (the Centre Party, Liberal People's Party, Moderate Party, and Christian Democratic Society Party) were allocated a combined total of 171 seats, 17 more than the two left-wing parties' 154, but still less than the 175 necessary for a majority. Thus the centre-right bloc was dependent upon New Democracy to secure a parliamentary majority.

This election was also famous for the performance of the Donald Duck Party, which collected 1,535 votes, enough to make it the 9th largest in Sweden. The protest party's platform consisted of the demand for "free liquor and wider sidewalks."

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party	2,062,761	37.7	138	–18
Moderate Party	1,199,394	21.9	80	+14
Liberal People's Party	499,356	9.1	33	–11
Centre Party	465,175	8.5	31	–11
Christian Democratic Society Party	390,351	7.1	26	+26
New Democracy	368,281	6.8	25	New
Left Party	246,905	4.5	16	–5
Green Party	185,051	3.4	0	–20
Other parties	53,487	1.0	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	92,159	–	–	–
Total	5,562,920	100	349	0
Registered voters/turnout	6,413,407	86.7	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By municipality

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  Votes by municipality. The municipalities are the color of the party that got the most votes within the coalition that won relative majority.

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  Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.

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  Map showing the voting shifts from the 1988 to the 1991 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.

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  Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.

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  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.