1982 Swedish general election

1982 Swedish general election

19 September 1982

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 2.37 pp 3.30 pp 2.59 pp

  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 4.69 pp 0.05 pp

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

General elections were held in Sweden on 19 September 1982. 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.

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.