08.00am. Good morning! Polling stations just opened in Sweden for an election that just a few weeks ago looked like it would bring a decisive victory for the centre-left, but could yet hold a few surprises.
The gap has been narrowing between the blocs, and the Liberals again appear to be polling above the four-percent parliamentary threshold, but is it too little, too late?
After all, it's slightly misleading to say that polling stations just opened, because early voting got under way as early as August 26th.
In fact, more than 3 million (!) of the roughly 8 million eligible voters in the 2026 election, already cast their vote before Election Day – a new record. It's an increase of a whopping 21 percent compared to the 2022 election.
We'll kick off our live blog at 3pm with the first exit polls expected shortly after voting closes at 8pm.
I'm The Local's editor, Emma Löfgren, and I'll be, as they say, your host tonight. I'll be joined here in Skåne by Richard Orange, and The Local's Paul O'Mahony and James Savage will be reporting straight from the political parties' election night vigils in Stockholm tonight. If you have any questions or requests, just pop them in the comments below and I'll try to respond to as many comments as I can when I'm back online after 3pm.
You can read all our election coverage in our dedicated 2026 Swedish Election section, so head on over there to find out how to vote or how the party election pledges could affect foreigners in Sweden.
If you haven't already, download our app (available on Apple and Android) and under "notification settings", tick "politics" to get an alert on your phone every time we publish a big update.
IN-DEPTH GUIDE: What you need to know about Sweden's eight political parties
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