Swedish voters go to polls to choose a new parliament as hard right bids for role in government

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Voters in Sweden will head to the polls on Sunday for an election that will determine whether a conservative leader remains in charge and a hard-right party wins ministerial jobs for the first time, or whether the center-left returns to power.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is seeking a second four-year term at the helm of the European Union nation that is also NATO’s newest member. Meanwhile, his predecessor hopes to win the job back.

Experts say the campaign has been fragmented and incoherent, with policy questions such as how healthcare should be organized drowned out by questions about which parties will be able to put together a government.

“Crime has come down, inflation has come down. So these topics are not really what people discuss,” said Zeth Isaksson, a sociologist in electoral behavior at Stockholm University and a political scientist at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. “People discuss who is going to be in government, and that’s what the election is about.”

Kristersson has led Sweden since 2022 with a three-party center-right coalition. It relies on outside support from the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party that has far-right roots but has moved toward the political mainstream, for a parliamentary majority. If the right is reelected, it can expect Cabinet posts this time.

He’s up against Magdalena Andersson of the center-left Social Democrats, a party that more often than not has led Swedish governments since World War II. Andersson served as prime minister from 2021 until she lost power at the last election.

There are two major political blocs: one with four parties on the right and another with four parties on the left. So the big question is less about which party wins and more about which side can form a majority. Individual parties need a minimum of 4% of the vote to win parliamentary seats.

The Sweden Democrats, who in 2022 took 20.5% of the vote to become the biggest party on the right, can expect Cabinet seats if power doesn’t change hands.

Kristersson announced in April that his conservative Moderates would allow them into government if the right has a majority — though he would remain prime minister even if the Sweden Democrats are the stronger party.

The Sweden Democrats were founded in the 1980s by people who had been active in right-wing extremist groups, including neo-Nazis. They toned down their rhetoric and expelled openly racist members under Jimmie Åkesson, who has led them since 2005 and overseen their growth from what was once a marginal party.

The Sweden Democrats' role is in focus against a background of gains for the populist right in Europe, including the first-place finish by the far-right Alternative for Germany party in a regional election there Sept. 6.

More than 8 million people in the nation of about 10.6 million are eligible to vote in the election for the 349-seat parliament, the Riksdag, which will elect the next prime minister. The Swedish Election Authority says the first preliminary results will be available around 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).

Leader of the Sweden Democrats party Jimmie Åkesson votes in Rinkeby, a suburb of Stockholm, Saturday Sept. 12, 2026, a day prior to the general election in Sweden. (Claudio Bresciani/TT via AP)

Election workers Felicia Platner and Nora Aissaoui visit the Vardaga Kullabo nursing home with a mobile polling station, in in Huddinge, Sweden, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Jessica Gow/TT via AP)

Social Democrats party leader Magdalena Andersson arrives for a party leadership televised debate in Gävle, Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP)

From left, the Liberals' Simona Mohamsson, Sweden Democrats' Jimmie Åkesson, Christian Democrats' Ebba Busch and Moderates' leader Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrive on the Moderates' bus for the party leadership televised debate in Gävle, Sweden, on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Anders Wiklund/TT News Agency via AP)

People wait in line at a polling station in Triangeln shopping center Friday evening to give their early vote, in Malmo, Sweden Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, ahead of general elections on Sunday (Johan Nilsson/TT via AP)

CAIRO (AP) — An Iranian commercial vessel was struck early Sunday off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, with one person killed and four wounded, Iranian state media said, a day before Tehran seeks to brief regional countries on its contested efforts to manage shipping traffic there.

State-run IRNA news agency quoted the Qeshm governor as blaming a “terrorist enemy.” He also said the person killed was among the cargo vessel's 10-member crew, and that authorities had not yet identified the projectile.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations monitor reported a vessel was hit by a projectile while transiting the strait, with no details.

There was no immediate statement by the U.S. military, which previously has struck Iranian-flagged vessels as it keeps up a blockade of Iranian ports — while facing a new threat in recent days from Iranian ballistic missiles launched at its warships.

Qeshm Island, located about 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the port city of Bandar Abbas, is key to Iran asserting control over traffic through the strait.

Sunday's strike came as tensions continue around the waterway that was seen as an international one before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

Global prices of oil, natural gas and related products have been sent higher, and now Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are pressuring a key shipping alternative, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. While the Houthis say they are targeting only neighboring Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen's internationally recognized government, markets are wary.

Iran on Saturday said foreign ministers from regional countries will meet to discuss efforts by Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, to manage shipping on it. Already, however, Bahrain has said it will not attend, and it was not clear what other nations would be there.

Iran has said reaching an agreement with Oman on the strait doesn’t mean it will open for shipping. “The waterway would be opened up on the condition that the U.S. will terminate its blockade,” Iran’s president told broadcaster India Today TV on Saturday.

Commercial ship traffic remains low on the strait as attacks continue. Iran has expressed interest in having ships pay fees for transit. It has also said traffic into the Persian Gulf would pass through Iranian waters, while the outbound route would pass partly through Iranian waters and partly through Oman’s.

Anna reported from Jerusalem.

A motorboat travels past commercial vessels anchored amid haze in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)