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Sweden’s left-leaning bloc has crept ahead of the ruling right-wing coalition in a neck-and-neck general election.

Led by former prime minister Magdalena Andersson of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, the left bloc, including the Left Party, Centre Party, and Green Party, is projected to win 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament.

But around six per cent of the vote is yet to be counted, as incumbent prime minister Ulf Kristersson – leading a right-wing grouping of the Christian Democrats, Liberal Party, and the hard-right Sweden Democrats – looks to turn the result around.

His governing bloc trails with a projected 173 seats, separated by roughly 20,000 votes, with the results expected to be finalised on Wednesday, the election authority said.

Election maps paint a clear picture of success for the centre left Social Democrats and centre-right Moderates in densely populated and inner-city areas, while the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, typically won in more rural areas.

A map by Swedish national broadcaster SVT shows the Social Democrats in control of the country’s north and battling with the Moderates for inner-city areas in southern areas. Red = Social Democrats (centre-left); Blue = Moderates (governing centre-right); Yellow = Sweden Democrats (hard right) (SVT)

The map, from Swedish public broadcaster SVT, presents the Social Democrats as red, the Sweden Democrats as yellow and the Moderates as light blue.

It shows that the capital of Stockholm and major cities including Gothenburg and Malmo lean heavily towards the Social Democrats and the Moderates.

Exit polls from public broadcaster SVT had initially shown the left-wing parties ahead by several percentage points, prompting jubilation at the Social Democrats’ election night gathering in Stockholm, though the mood shifted to quiet waiting as the preliminary results proved to be closer.

The projected victory for the left bloc was driven mainly by losses for the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which had helped steer the once-liberal nation towards some of Europe’s strictest migration rules.

But final results are not expected before Wednesday, when local election boards count postal votes that arrived too late for polling day, along with ballots cast from abroad.

Sweden elects its parliament through a proportional representation system, with parties needing at least 4 per cent of the vote to win seats. More than 8 million of the country’s roughly 10.6 million people were eligible to vote.

​​The country’s political landscape is split between two four-party blocs, on the left and the right, meaning the outcome hinges less on any single party’s result and more on which side can assemble a majority.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (Moderate Party) leaves the official residence, Sager House, the day after Sweden’s very close general election (Reuters)

Both the Social Democrats (28.1 per cent) and the Sweden Democrats (17.6 per cent), who had been the largest two parties after the 2022 elections, have seen small downswings of 2.3 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

The Moderates, led by Mr Kristersson, have enjoyed a 0.8 per cent uptick and are the second largest party in the preliminary results, 2.3 points above the Sweden Democrats.

In total, preliminary results have the left bloc vote at 49.5 per cent, while the right bloc sits at 49.1 per cent.

Speaking early on Monday, Mr Kristersson said the outcome remained genuinely uncertain, though he pointed to what he described as a broader ideological majority in parliament.

“There is a very clear non-socialist majority, or non-left-leaning economic majority in the Swedish parliament,” he said.

“When we have the final result, it’s a good idea to look at possible combinations. I will actually take note of that and at least figure out whether there are any possibilities.”

No major media outlet had called the result. Ms Andersson urged her own supporters to wait for the final count.

“We must wait for the final election result,” she said. “Right now we are leading, but we have to wait for the final result.”