Europe

The Latest: Sweden faces uncertainty after close election

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Prime minister and party leader of the Social Democrat party Stefan Löfven waves at an election party in Stockholm, Sweden, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018. Preliminary results of the 2018 Swedish parliamentary elections showed on Sunday night that Centre-Left bloc of the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and Left party gained 40.7 percent of votes, narrowly heading in the race. The opposition Center-Right alliance bloc of the Moderate Party, the Centre Party, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats gained 40.3 percent votes. Anti-immigration, the far-right Sweden Democrats scored 17.6 percent votes. (Claudio Bresciani/TT via AP)

Supporters attend the Social Democratic Party's election night party in Stockholm, Sweden, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018. A preliminary count from Sweden's general election showed an anti-immigrant party with a neo-Nazi past placing third and the ruling center-right party making its worst showing in decades with more than half of the ballots tallied. (Claudio Bresciani/TT via AP)

The Latest on Sweden's general election to renew the 349-seat Riksdag, the country's Parliament (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Sweden's national election commission says an updated preliminary result is expected Wednesday that will include votes from abroad and early votes.

The Election Authority said Monday it will perform another count of votes after Sunday's election, as is customary. A final result is expected to be presented to Parliament on Friday at the earliest.

In Sweden, to enter Parliament, a party has to pass the 4-percent threshold.

The governing center-left bloc has a razor-thin edge over the center-right opposition Alliance, with roughly 40 percent each. Both sides are keeping the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigrant party with roots in a neo-Nazi movement that got nearly 18 percent, at arm's length.

It said turnout stood at 84.4 percent, up one percentage point from the 2014 elections.

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6:15 a.m.

Sweden is facing weeks of political uncertainty after the country's two rival blocs failed to secure a governing majority in elections that saw a boost for a far-right party amid growing discontent with large-scale immigration.

With most of the ballots counted, the governing center-left bloc has a razor-thin edge over the center-right opposition Alliance, with roughly 40 percent each.

Sunday's election saw the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigrant party with roots in a neo-Nazi movement, win about 18 percent, up from the 13 percent it gained four years earlier.

The party, which has worked to moderate its image in past years, gained on a backlash against the challenges of integrating hundreds of thousands of immigrants that arrived in the Scandinavian nation of 10 million over the past years.