1982 Swedish general election

General elections were held in Sweden on 19 September 1982.^[1] They saw the return of the Swedish Social Democratic Party to power after six years in opposition, the longest period in opposition by the Social Democrats since the 1910s. The center-right coalition of Thorbjörn Fälldin had earlier suffered a loss upon the breakup of the government in 1981, the year before the election, when the rightist Moderate Party chose to withdraw from the government, protesting against the centrist tax policies of the Fälldin government. After regaining power, Social Democratic leader Olof Palme succeeded in being elected Prime Minister again, having earlier held power between 1969 and 1976.

1982 Swedish general election

← 1979 19 September 1982 1985 →
All 349 seats in the Riksdag 175 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Olof Palme Ulf Adelsohn Thorbjörn Fälldin Party Social Democrats Moderate Centre Last election 154 73 64 Seats won 166 86 56 Seat change 12 13 8 Popular vote 2,533,250 1,313,337 859,618 Percentage 45.61% 23.64% 15.48% Swing 2.37pp 3.30pp 2.59pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Ola Ullsten Lars Werner Party People's Party Left Communists Last election 38 20 Seats won 21 20 Seat change 17 Popular vote 327 770 308,899 Percentage 5.90% 5.56% Swing 4.69pp 0.05pp
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 Thorbjörn Fälldin Centre Elected PM Olof Palme Social Democrats

The 2,533,250 votes for the Social Democrats is, in spite of a larger electorate, as of 2022 the highest number of people voting for a single party in Swedish electoral history, although the party had previously recorded higher percentage shares.

Debates

1982 Swedish general election debates
Date	Time	Organizers	Moderators	P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee
				S	M	C	L	V	Refs
		Sveriges Television	Lars Orup [sv]	P Olof Palme, Kjell-Olof Feldt	P Ulf Adelsohn	P Thorbjörn Fälldin	P Ola Ullsten	P Lars Werner	[2]

Results

Main article: Results of the 1982 Swedish general election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Swedish Social Democratic Party	2,533,250	45.61	166	+12
	Moderate Party	1,313,337	23.64	86	+13
	Centre Party	859,618	15.48	56	−8
	People's Party	327,770	5.90	21	−17
	Left Party Communists	308,899	5.56	20	0
	Christian Democratic Unity	103,820	1.87	0	0
	Green Party	91,787	1.65	0	New
	Workers Party Communists	5,745	0.10	0	0
	Other parties	10,376	0.19	0	0
Total		5,554,602	100.00	349	0
Valid votes		5,554,602	99.07
Invalid/blank votes		52,001	0.93
Total votes		5,606,603	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,130,993	91.45
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Seat distribution

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		By party						By coalition
		S	M	C	F	V		Left	Right
Älvsborg North	10	5	2	2	1			5	5
Älvsborg South	7	3	2	2				3	4
Blekinge	6	4	1	1				4	2
Bohus	10	4	3	2	1			4	6
Fyrstadskretsen	19	9	6	2	1	1		10	9
Gävleborg	12	7	2	2		1		8	4
Gothenburg	18	8	5	1	2	2		10	8
Gotland	2	1		1				1	1
Halland	10	4	3	2	1			4	6
Jämtland	5	3	1	1				3	2
Jönköping	13	6	3	3	1			6	7
Kalmar	9	5	2	2				5	4
Kopparberg	12	6	2	3		1		7	5
Kristianstad	11	5	3	2	1			5	6
Kronoberg	7	3	2	2				3	4
Malmöhus	13	6	4	2	1			6	7
Norrbotten	10	7	1	1		1		8	2
Örebro	12	6	2	2	1	1		7	5
Östergötland	17	8	4	3	1	1		9	8
Skaraborg	12	5	3	3	1			5	7
Södermanland	11	6	2	2	1			6	5
Stockholm County	34	14	12	3	2	3		17	17
Stockholm Municipality	31	12	11	2	2	4		16	15
Uppsala	11	5	2	2	1	1		6	5
Värmland	13	6	3	2	1	1		7	6
Västerbotten	10	5	1	2	1	1		6	4
Västernorrland	13	7	2	3		1		8	5
Västmanland	11	6	2	1	1	1		7	4
Total	349	166	86	56	21	20		186	163
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.
• 
  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 1979 to the 1982 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. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1858 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Slutdebatter – Partiledardebatt (in Swedish), Sweden Sveriges Television AB, Stockholm, retrieved 29 January 2024