1976 Swedish general election

1976 Swedish general election

19 September 1976
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Olof Palme Thorbjörn Fälldin Gösta Bohman Party Social Democrats Centre Moderate Last election 156 90 51 Seats won 152 86 55 Seat change 4 4 4 Popular vote 2,324,603 1,309,669 847,672 Percentage 42.75% 24.08% 15.59% Swing 0.81pp 1.02pp 1.30pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Per Ahlmark Lars Werner Party People's Party Left Communists Last election 34 19 Seats won 39 17 Seat change 5 2 Popular vote 601,556 258,432 Percentage 11.06% 4.75% Swing 1.64pp 0.58pp
Map of the election, showing the distribution of constituency and levelling seats, as well as the largest political bloc within each constituency.
PM before election Olof Palme Social Democrats Elected PM Thorbjörn Fälldin Centre

General elections were held in Sweden on 19 September 1976.^[1] Although the Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 152 of the 349 seats in the Riksdag,^[2] a coalition government was formed with the Centre Party, the People's Party and the conservative Moderate Party (who won a combined 180 seats), which formed Sweden's first non-socialist government since 1936. Centre Party leader Thorbjörn Fälldin, who had widely been expected to take over the government in the previous election of 1973 (which turned out to bring a 175-175 draw between the left and right blocs), was appointed prime minister, the first not from the Swedish Social Democratic Party since Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp's brief interregnum 40 years earlier.

Debates

1976 Swedish general election debates
Date	Time	Organisers	Moderators	P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee
				S	C	M	L	V	Refs
1 September 1976				P Olof Palme	P Thorbjörn Fälldin	N Gösta Bohman	N Per Ahlmark	N Lars Werner	[3]
		Sveriges Television	Lars Orup [sv]	P Olof Palme,Gunnar Sträng	P Thorbjörn Fälldin	P Gösta Bohman	P Per Ahlmark	P Lars Werner	[4]

Results

Main article: Results of the 1976 Swedish general election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Swedish Social Democratic Party	2,324,603	42.75	152	–4
	Centre Party	1,309,669	24.08	86	–4
	Moderate Party	847,672	15.59	55	+4
	People's Party	601,556	11.06	39	+5
	Left Party Communists	258,432	4.75	17	–2
	Christian Democratic Unity	73,844	1.36	0	0
	Communist Party	17,309	0.32	0	0
	Other parties	4,663	0.09	0	0
Total		5,437,748	100.00	349	–1
Valid votes		5,437,748	99.65
Invalid/blank votes		19,295	0.35
Total votes		5,457,043	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		5,947,077	91.76
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Seat distribution

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		By party						By coalition
		S	C	M	F	V		Right	Left
Älvsborg North	9	4	3	1	1			5	4
Älvsborg South	8	3	2	2	1			5	3
Blekinge	7	3	2	1	1			4	3
Bohus	11	4	3	2	2			7	4
Fyrstadskretsen	19	9	3	4	2	1		9	10
Gävleborg	13	6	3	1	1	2		5	8
Gothenburg	19	7	3	3	4	2		10	9
Gotland	2	1	1					1	1
Halland	9	3	3	2	1			6	3
Jämtland	5	3	2					2	3
Jönköping	13	5	4	2	2			8	5
Kalmar	11	5	3	2	1			6	5
Kopparberg	13	6	4	1	1	1		6	7
Kristianstad	12	5	4	2	1			7	5
Kronoberg	7	3	3	1				4	3
Malmöhus	11	5	3	2	1			6	5
Norrbotten	12	6	2	1	1	2		4	8
Örebro	11	6	3	1	1			5	6
Östergötland	18	8	4	3	2	1		9	9
Skaraborg	11	4	4	2	1			7	4
Södermanland	9	5	2	1	1			4	5
Stockholm County	33	12	6	7	5	3		18	15
Stockholm Municipality	32	12	4	8	4	4		16	16
Uppsala	10	4	3	1	1	1		5	5
Värmland	12	6	3	2	1			6	6
Västerbotten	10	5	3	1	1			5	5
Västernorrland	13	7	4	1	1			6	7
Västmanland	9	5	2	1	1			4	5
Total	349	152	86	55	39	17		180	169
Source: Statistics Sweden

By municipality

• 
  Votes by municipality. The municipalities are the color of the party that got the most votes within the coalition that won relative majority. Some municipalities have been split since 1976, so may be different to apparent results.
• 
  Cartogram of the map to the left with each municipality rescaled to the number of valid votes cast.
• 
  Map showing the voting shifts from the 1973 to the 1976 election. Darker blue indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that formed the centre-right bloc. Darker red indicates a municipality voted more towards the parties that form the left-wing bloc.
• 
  Votes by municipality as a scale from red/Left-wing bloc to blue/Centre-right bloc.
• 
  Cartogram of vote with each municipality rescaled in proportion to number of valid votes cast. Deeper blue represents a relative majority for the centre-right coalition, brighter red represents a relative majority for the left-wing coalition.

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1873
3. Valet 1976 - Duellen - Olof Palme (S) och Thorbjörn Fälldin (C), retrieved 2024-02-01
4. Sweden, Sveriges Television AB, Stockholm, Slutdebatter – Partiledardebatt (in Swedish), retrieved 2024-01-29