1973 Swedish general election

General elections were held in Sweden on 16 September 1973.[1] The Social Democrats remained the largest party, winning 156 of the 350 seats.

1973 Swedish general election

← 1970 16 September 1973 1976 →

All 350 seats in the Riksdag
176 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Olof Palme Thorbjörn Fälldin Gösta Bohman
Party Social Democrats Centre Moderate
Last election 163 71 41
Seats won 156 90 51
Seat change Decrease7 Increase19 Increase10
Popular vote 2,247,727 1,295,246 737,584
Percentage 43.56% 25.10% 14.29%
Swing Decrease1.78pp Increase5.18pp Increase2.76pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Gunnar Helén C.-H. Hermansson
Party People's Party Left Communists
Last election 58 17
Seats won 34 19
Seat change Decrease24 Increase2
Popular vote 486,028 274,929
Percentage 9.42% 5.33%
Swing Decrease6.79pp Increase0.57pp

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

Olof Palme
Social Democrats

Elected PM

Olof Palme
Social Democrats

For most of the campaign, the opposition parties had led the socialist parties in the polls. It has been speculated that several events influenced the outcome of the election in favour of the government: the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf the previous day, the Norrmalmstorg robbery and the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Prime Minister Olof Palme had delivered an impassioned speech on Salvador Allende's legacy on the eve of the election, in which he praised the democratic system.

The elections instead produced a draw, with the socialist and liberal-conservative blocs each winning 175 seats.[2] Since the opposition could not pass a motion of no confidence against Palme's government, he was able to remain in power. In order to pass legislation the Social Democrats had to draw lots or seek support from the opposition. To prevent this scenario from reoccurring, the number of seats in the Riksdag was adjusted to an odd number for subsequent elections. In the popular vote, while winning an equal number of seats the socialist bloc won 2,522,656 votes to the 2,518,858 for the liberal-conservative bloc, a net difference of 3,798 votes or 48.80% versus 48.73%, although the seats ended up being shared equally because of the narrow margin.

Results

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PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Swedish Social Democratic Party2,247,72743.56156–7
Centre Party1,295,24625.1090+19
Moderate Party737,58414.2951+10
People's Party486,0289.4234–24
Left Party Communists274,9295.3319+2
Christian Democratic Unity90,3881.7500
Communist Party18,9230.3700
Communist League Marxist-Leninist (Revolutionaries)8,0140.160New
Other parties1,3070.0300
Total5,160,146100.003500
Valid votes5,160,14699.83
Invalid/blank votes8,8500.17
Total votes5,168,996100.00
Registered voters/turnout5,690,33390.84
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Seat distribution

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Constituency Total
seats
Seats won
By party By coalition
S C M F V Left Right
Älvsborg North 9 4 3 1 1 4 5
Älvsborg South 7 3 2 2 3 4
Blekinge 7 3 2 1 1 3 4
Bohus 11 4 3 2 2 4 7
Fyrstadskretsen 21 10 4 4 2 1 11 10
Gävleborg 13 7 3 1 1 1 8 5
Gothenburg 20 8 3 3 4 2 10 10
Gotland 2 1 1 1 1
Halland 8 3 3 1 1 3 5
Jämtland 5 3 2 3 2
Jönköping 13 5 4 2 2 5 8
Kalmar 10 5 3 2 5 5
Kopparberg 13 6 4 1 1 1 7 6
Kristianstad 12 5 4 2 1 5 7
Kronoberg 7 3 3 1 3 4
Malmöhus 12 5 4 2 1 5 7
Norrbotten 11 6 2 1 2 8 3
Örebro 12 6 3 1 1 1 7 5
Östergötland 16 8 4 2 1 1 9 7
Skaraborg 11 4 4 2 1 4 7
Södermanland 11 5 2 1 1 5 4
Stockholm County 32 12 7 6 4 3 15 17
Stockholm Municipality 34 13 5 8 4 4 17 17
Uppsala 9 4 3 1 1 4 5
Värmland 12 6 3 1 1 1 7 5
Västerbotten 10 5 3 1 1 5 5
Västernorrland 12 6 3 1 1 1 7 5
Västmanland 12 6 3 1 1 1 7 5
Total 350 156 90 51 34 19 175 175
Source: Statistics Sweden

By municipality

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References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ 1976 Inter-Parliamentary Union