Sweden's centre-left opposition wins election, SVT says

Sweden's centre-left opposition has defeated the incumbent right-wing governing bloc by the slimmest of margins, public broadcaster SVT said on Wednesday, after 99 per cent of the votes in Sunday's parliamentary election had been counted.

Only 26,169 votes separated the two blocs at 1647 GMT, but with fewer than 1 per cent of districts left to count, parties led by opposition leader Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats looked set to win 175 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, signalling a change of government.

"The likelihood of a turnaround at this stage is so low that we can confidently state that the opposition will secure the most seats in this election," SVT said.

The right-wing governing bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which includes the far-right Sweden Democrats, was meanwhile on track to win 174 seats, data from Sweden's election authority showed.

The agency is now counting late incoming ballots from home and overseas, and has said this process may go on until Thursday before all votes are accounted for.