Swedish general election, 2006

Swedish general election, 2006

← 2002 17 September 2006 2010 →
All 349 seats to the Riksdag 175 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Göran Persson Fredrik Reinfeldt Maud Olofsson Party Social Democratic Moderate Centre Alliance Centre-left The Alliance The Alliance Last election 144 55 22 Seats won 130 97 29 Seat change 14 42 7 Popular vote 1,942,625 1,456,014 437,389 Percentage 35.0% 26.3% 7.9%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Lars Leijonborg Göran Hägglund Lars Ohly Party Liberal People's Christian Democrats Left Alliance The Alliance The Alliance Centre-left Last election 48 33 30 Seats won 28 24 22 Seat change 20 9 8 Popular vote 418,395 365,998 324,722 Percentage 7.5% 6.6% 5.9%   Seventh party   Leader Peter Eriksson Maria Wetterstrand Party Green Alliance Centre-left Last election 17 Seats won 19 Seat change 2 Popular vote 291,121 Percentage 5.2%
Largest party by district (left) and municipality (right) Red-Social Democratic, Blue-Moderate
Prime Minister before election Göran Persson Social Democratic Elected Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt Moderate

Göran Persson
Social Democratic

Fredrik Reinfeldt
Moderate

A general election was held in Sweden on 17 September 2006, to elect members to the Riksdag, the Swedish national legislature. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 fixed seats in 29 constituencies and 39 adjustment seats, used to ensure that parties have representation in the Riksdag proportional to their share of the national vote. The electoral system used was semi-open list proportional representation using the Sainte-Laguë method of allocating seats. Elections for County and Municipal councils were also held on the same day.

Fredrik Reinfeldt from the Moderate Party was able to form a majority government together with the Centre Party, Liberal People's Party and the Christian Democrats following the election. The Social Democrats were ousted after twelve years in power. It was the country's first majority government since the Social Democrats alone held a majority between 1968 and 1970.

The minority government of Göran Persson's Social Democratic Party attempted, and failed, to gain enough seats to form a majority government, to continue as a minority or to govern in a red-green coalition government. His party had been in power since the 1994 election, and Persson had been Prime Minister since 1996. The Social Democrats before the election had an agreement with the Left Party and the Green Party that gave them an influence on government policy in exchange for their support. However, both the Left Party and the Green Party insisted that any red-green government formed after the election would need to include them in a coalition.