General elections were held in Sweden on 18 September 1994.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 161 of the 349 seats.Nohlen & Stöver, p1873 Led by Ingvar Carlsson, the party returned to power and formed a minority government after the election. This was the final time the Social Democrats recorded above 40% of the vote before the party's vote share steeply declined four years later and never recovered. The Greens also returned to the Riksdag in the 1994 elections, after a three-year absence.
The election saw the largest bloc differences for a generation, with the red-green parties making sizeable inroads into the blue heartlands of inner Småland and Western Götaland, at an even higher rate than 1988. The Social Democrats gathered more than 50% of the vote in all five northern counties, Blekinge, Södermanland, Västmanland and Örebro.
In spite of the loss of power, the Moderates retained their 80 seats and gained 0.5% from 1991. Due to the sizeable losses of their coalition, the net difference between the blocs was 53, with the red-greens making up 201 and the blue parties 148.
The Christian Democrats fared poorly, merely beating the threshold by 3,752 votes. New Democracy, a right-wing populist political party which had entered the Riksdag three years earlier, performed poorly, losing most of its voters and all of its seats in the Riksdag. In total the party's vote share dropped from 6.7% in 1991 to 1.2% in 1994. The election introduced an extended electoral cycle of four years, replacing the previous three-year terms.
The proportion of women elected to the Riksdag increased from 34% in 1991 to 40%, following a campaign by the () before the elections.Törnqvist, Maria (2019). ”Varannan damernas eller hela makten? Kommentar till Maria-Pia Boëthius, "Krav på kvinnoparti"”. i Klara Arnberg, Fia Sundevall, David Tjeder. Könspolitiska nyckeltexter. Från Det går an till #metoo. p. 422–426
They were the first elections in the world in which the official results were published live on the nascent internet.General aspects of Sweden's electoral system Election Resources
Debates
1994 Swedish general election debates Date Time Organizers Moderators Present Invitee Non-invitee SMLCKDNyDVMPRefs 20:00 Sveriges TelevisionMaud ZachrissonPIngvar CarlssonPCarl BildtPBengt WesterberPOlof JohanssonPAlf SvenssonPVivianne FranzénPGudrun SchymanPBirger Schlaug
Results
Seat distribution ConstituencyTotalseatsSeats wonBy partyBy coalitionSMCFVMPKDSÄlvsborg North125211111651Älvsborg South632133Blekinge64242Bohus135311111661Gävleborg12621111741Gothenburg17742211971Gotland222Halland9431145Jämtland531132Jönköping145311112671Kalmar115221165Kopparberg136211111751Kristianstad126311166Kronoberg632133Malmö85353Malmöhus North10531155Malmöhus South1254111561Norrbotten11811192Örebro136211111751Östergötland157311111861Skaraborg125211111651Södermanland11521111641Stockholm County3614112322216182Stockholm Municipality26981322111132Uppsala12531111651Värmland116211174Västerbotten115111111641Västernorrland12621111741Västmanland116211174Total34916180272622181518314818Source: Statistics Sweden
By municipality
References