In the city of Stockholm, the Social Democrats had dropped by around 3 percentage points to 26.3 percent as of 9am, while the Green Party increased by around 5 percentage points to 11.2 percent. The centre-right Moderates also show an increase, but the majority looks set to remain "red-green".
"It feels great, we're having our best election in ten years," Lars Strömgren of the Green Party, Stockholm's transport councillor, told the TT news agency.
In Gothenburg, preliminary figures show small changes. Here too, the Green Party had a strong election, up by 2.3 percentage points to 8.3 percent as of 9am. The Social Democrats look set to increase by around 1 percentage point to 27.6 percent.
"If that trend holds, it would be a success for Gothenburg, because then we haven't felt the same drop that we're seeing nationally," Social Democrat mayor Jonas Attenius told Göteborgs-Posten.
In Malmö, which has been governed by the Social Democrats, Liberals, and Green Party, the Left Party recorded a 3.6 percentage point rise as of 9am, to 17.2 percent. The Green Party also made gains, up around 3 percentage points to 8.6 percent. Meanwhile, the Sweden Democrats look set to drop below 12 percent.