Elections and political parties

Chapter 4 is about how elections actually work in practice — who can vote in which election, how votes turn into seats, and which parties exist. It covers pages 14–15 and includes several rules that are easy to mix up.

Who can vote in which election?

This is the hardest part of the chapter, because the rules differ between elections. The basic requirement in every election is being at least 18 years old. Beyond that, different rules apply:

Election	Requirement
Riksdag election	Swedish citizenship
Municipal and regional elections	Not Swedish citizenship, but registered as a resident in Sweden for a total of three years
Municipal and regional elections, EU and Nordic citizens	Only registered residence in the country
European Parliament election	EU citizens vote in the country where they are registered as residents

That you can vote in municipal and regional elections without Swedish citizenship is something many people don’t know, and that’s exactly the kind of detail suited to a test question.

How often are elections held?

• Riksdag, regional council, and municipal council: every four years
• European Parliament: every five years

Referendums

Sometimes referendums are held on a specific issue. They can be held nationally, in a region, or in a municipality.

The most important thing to know: referendums are advisory. Politicians are therefore not required to follow the result.

The material’s example is the referendum on the euro in 2003, where the public voted no and Sweden kept the Swedish krona.

How voting works

Anyone with the right to vote receives a voter card in the mail before the election. The voter card states which polling station to go to. It’s also possible to vote early at designated locations instead of at the polling station on election day.

At the polling station there are ballots for the different parties. You vote in a voting booth, behind a screen, because the vote is secret and no one else should be able to see who you’re voting for.

Political parties

A political party brings together people who share ideas about how society should be governed. Parties propose different solutions and push the issues they consider important, which gives voters alternatives to choose between.

Anyone who wants to can become a member of a party to influence its policies — and it’s also possible to start a new party together with others.

During the election campaign ahead of elections, parties try to persuade voters through debates, meetings, political advertising, and campaigning in streets and public squares.

Proportional elections and the four-percent threshold

Sweden has proportional elections. This means parties get seats in the Riksdag or in regional and municipal councils in proportion to the share of votes they received: a party that gets twenty percent of the votes gets twenty percent of the seats.

One consequence of this system is that parties often need to cooperate to gain a majority for their proposals.

The four-percent threshold: a party must get at least four percent of the votes to enter the Riksdag. The rule exists to prevent too many parties from getting in, since that would make it harder to form stable majorities.

The parties in the Riksdag

The material lists the parties that were in the Riksdag up to the 2026 election, in alphabetical order:

• Centerpartiet (C)
• Kristdemokraterna (KD)
• Liberalerna (L)
• Miljöpartiet (MP)
• Moderaterna (M)
• Socialdemokraterna (S)
• Sverigedemokraterna (SD)
• Vänsterpartiet (V)

In regional and municipal elections there are also often local parties that only run on a platform for their own region or municipality and don’t stand at the national level.

What’s easy to mix up

• Four years or five? Riksdag, region, and municipality every four years; the European Parliament every five.
• Citizenship or residence? The Riksdag election requires citizenship; municipal and regional elections don’t.
• Advisory or binding? Referendums are advisory.
• Four percent applies to the Riksdag.