1994 Swedish general election

General elections were held in Sweden on 18 September 1994.[1] The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 161 of the 349 seats.[2] Led by Ingvar Carlsson, the party returned to power and formed a minority government after the election. This was the final time the Social Democrats recorded above 40% of the vote before the party's vote share steeply declined four years later and never recovered. The Greens also returned to the Riksdag after a three-year absence.

1994 Swedish general election

18 September 1994
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ingvar Carlsson Carl Bildt Olof Johansson Party Social Democrats Moderate Centre Last election 138 80 31 Seats won 161 80 27 Seat change 23 0 4 Popular vote 2,513,905 1,243,253 425,153 Percentage 45.25% 22.38% 7.65% Swing 7.54pp 0.46pp 0.85pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Bengt Westerberg Gudrun Schyman Marianne Samuelsson Birger Schlaug Party Liberal People's Left Green Last election 33 16 0 Seats won 26 22 18 Seat change 7 6 18 Popular vote 399,556 342,988 279,042 Percentage 7.19% 6.17% 5.02% Swing 1.94pp 1.66pp 1.64pp   Seventh party   Leader Alf Svensson Party Christian Democrats Last election 26 Seats won 15 Seat change 11 Popular vote 225,974 Percentage 4.07% Swing 3.07pp
Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.
PM before election Carl Bildt Moderate Elected PM Ingvar Carlsson Social Democrats

The election saw the largest bloc differences for a generation, with the red-green parties making sizeable inroads into the blue heartlands of inner Småland and Western Götaland, at an even higher rate than 1988. The Social Democrats gathered more than 50% of the vote in all five northern counties, Blekinge, Södermanland, Västmanland and Örebro.[3]

In spite of the loss of power, the Moderates retained their 80 seats and gained 0.5% from 1991. Due to the sizeable losses of their coalition, the net difference between the blocs was 53, with the red-greens making up 201 and the blue parties 148.[3]

The Christian Democrats fared poorly, merely beating the threshold by 3,752 votes.[3] New Democracy, a right-wing populist political party which had entered the Riksdag three years earlier, performed poorly, losing most of its voters and all of its seats in the Riksdag. In total the party's vote share dropped from 6.7% in 1991 to 1.2% in 1994. The election introduced an extended electoral cycle of four years, replacing the previous three-year terms.

It was also notable for being the first electoral event in the world whose official results were published live on the nascent World Wide Web (other countries had previously used the then-fledgling Internet to officially broadcast election results, but with simpler methods such as e-mail lists).[4]