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ELECTION

Swedes’ party loyalty very much in play: poll

More than one million Swedish voters may yet change their allegiance on election day, according to a new poll, signaling that the battle for control of the Riksdag is far from over.

Swedes' party loyalty very much in play: poll
Sahlin and Reinfeldt square off at a Sept. 9 debate on TV4

“The election is still undecided. We’re aware that many people are now entering the phase when they start to decide,” prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told the TT news agency on Saturday.

While poll after poll have shown given the advantage to the centre-right Alliance, nearly a quarter of their supporters indicated they may switch sides, according to the results of a Sifo poll published in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

In addition, the Red-Green coalition is doing everything it can to mobilise its supporters and get people to get up off the couch and vote for the centre-left opposition.

The responses collected from 1,125 respondents in the Sifo poll indicate that around 1.2 million Swedish voters may abandon the voting bloc with which they traditionally identify, with centre-right supporters showing they are slightly more likely to switch.

Of voters who identify with the parties of the centre-right Alliance, 24 percent said they can imagine voting for the Red-Green bloc.

And among Red-Green sympathisers, 22 percent are open to jumping the fence and voting for the centre-right.

Speaking in the strongly centre-right Stockholm suburbs of Täby and Nacka on Saturday, Reinfeldt said he was well aware of voters’ shifting allegiances.

“That why today, in the speeches I’ve given, have chosen to urge people to think, and to vote for a strong government so that the situation we’ve had – with a stable governing majority – can remain,” he said.

The prime minister added that shifting voter sentiments are something which much be considered carefully in the final days before the election.

“It becomes clearer that you have to focus on those who haven’t yet made up their minds,” said Reinfeldt.

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