Sweden center-left leads in early exit polls

As polls closed in Sweden on Sunday evening, Sweden's center-left coalition – comprised of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left party – had won at least 43.7 percent of the vote. The early results were published by Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

Social Democrat leader Stefan Loefven was expected to form a new government after Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's center-right alliance only won 39.7 percent of the vote, a major blow to the government which has been in power for eight years.

Though Sweden's red-green three-party coalition looks poised to win, it has not clinched an absolute majority and will have to find a fourth coalition partner.

One possibility is to align itself with a new left-leaning party, the Feminist Initiative, which cleared the 4.0 percent threshold to enter parliament. However, the feminist party was not projected to win many more votes, and was therefore unlikely to push the center-left over 50 percent.

The right-wing Sweden Democrats won at least 13 percent of the vote on Sunday, a major leap from its 5.7 percent in 2010. However, the center-left has already ruled out forming a coalition with the anti-immigration party.

The most likely option on Sunday evening was for the left-leaning alliance to seek out one of Reinfeldt's coalition government, which includes the Liberal Party, the Center Party, the Christian Democrats and the prime minister's Moderate Party.

The incumbent prime minister and his conservative Moderate Party are widely credited with doing a good job of shepherding Sweden through the global financial crisis that broke out towards the end of the last decade, but his critics point to a growing income gap between the country's rich and poor in the eight years since he took office.

In addition to the general election, Swedes also selected 20 county councils and 290 municipal councils. Non-binding referenda were also being held in six municipalities, including Gothenburg, where a proposed congestion fee for vehicles driving into the city is being put to the voters.

kms/se (AP, AFP, dpa)