ELECTIONS ’14 A Mundus International Journal Elections ’14 is a journal of six issues, which monitors and analyses the elections to the European Parliament and the Swedish Riksdag in 2014. The journal has been specifically developed for foreign missions. PART 3: THE ELECTIONS March, 2014 Part 3: The Elections ELECTIONS ’14 A Mundus International Journal 2014 marks an important political year in Sweden with elections to the European Parliament on May 25 and the national elections being held on September 14. This third issue of Elections ’14 explains how the elections will be conducted and looks at the political proceedings following the national elections. introduction .................................................................................................................. 2 sweden’s levels of government ................................................................................. 3 sweden’s electoral system .......................................................................................... 4 29 constituencies .......................................................................................................... 4 On Election Day ............................................................................................................ 5 the swedish national elections .................................................................................. 5 post election .................................................................................................................. 6 Electing the Speaker of the Riksdag ............................................................................. 6 Proposing the new Prime Minister ................................................................................ 7 Forming the new government ....................................................................................... 7 european parliament elections .................................................................................. 8 Electoral laws vary within the Union ............................................................................. 8 Sweden’s electoral system ........................................................................................... 9 in addition: eu top jobs to be filled .......................................................................... 9 appendix 1 ................................................................................................................... 12 appendix 2 ................................................................................................................... 13 appendix 3 ................................................................................................................... 14 appendix 4 ................................................................................................................... 15 references ..................................................................................................................... 16 “Swedish democracy is founded on the free formation of opinion and on universal and equal suffrage. It shall be realised through a representative and parliamentary polity and through local self-government.” The Instrument of Government 1 Part 3: The Elections INTRODUCTION 2014 – the Swedish ’super election year’. And indeed, the political temperature is starting to heat up in Sweden. This week the government Alliance launched their joint election campaign, and the opposition parties are stepping up the campaigning as we approach the first of this year’s elections. With little more than six months before the 2014 parliamentary election, Sweden's opposition red-green political block is holding onto its strong lead in the polls, and the Centre Party and the Christian Democrats continuously scores below the 4 per cent threshold for representation in the Riksdag. At the European level, the Liberal Party, the Green Party, and the Left Party could see a boost in support in this Spring's election according to recent polls. Both the Green Party and the Left Party are polling over ten per cent of the vote, way above their polling ratings for the upcoming national election in September (see Appendices 1 and 2). The election campaigns for the national- and EU elections are shaping up in different ways, but the EU elections are receiving comparably little attention in the Swedish media. Most Swedes seem to find it hard to get excited about the elections in May – polls indicate that less than half of Swedes want to stay in the EU. Although, the proportion of resolute nay-sayers is decreasing, according to Statistics Sweden. The lukewarm feeling towards Europe was reflected in the low voter turnout in 2009. In Sweden, where turnout at the last national election was 85 per cent, only 45 per cent of eligible Swedes used their vote in the last European elections. However, there are polls indicating that more Swedish voters intend to vote in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament, than ever before. Ahead of this year’s EP election, the political groups in the European parliament have for the first time appointed ‘lead candidates’, who will be the main faces of their campaigns – all in an attempt to mobilise voters and give a sense of this being a united European election. Between now and September, the media coverage of the elections will increase and the political parties will step up their political campaigning. The 2010 election campaign featured new approaches to reaching voters with social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, Internet blogs and other new technologies presented alternatives to traditional mass media. This trend will continue in this year’s political campaigns. 2010 also saw paid political campaign advertising on commercial TV channels being allowed for the first time. An important feature is the traditional live debate between the prime minister and the leader of the largest opposition party on Sveriges Television (SVT). The live debate – called the Duel (Duellen) – aims to clarify policy differences between the government and the opposition and will be aired on 7 September. Another live two-hour long debate – the Final Debate (Slutdebatten) – is showed on SVT on 12 September. In this debate, the leaders of the Riksdag parties will debate the main issues in the campaign and highlight differences in their platforms to help undecided voters make their choice. Ahead of the European Election, SVT will send party leader debate on 23 May. The last edition of Elections ’14 guided you through some of the issues debated in the on-going election campaigns. This edition focuses on how the upcoming elections will be conducted and explains how the government is formed following an election. At the EU level, there are common rules, but the elections to the European Parliament are to a large extent organised according to national legislations and traditions, some of which are outlined here. This edition also reviews the top EU positions that will be made vacant during the course of the year. Our intention is that you will draw on this research document as we approach the elections. 2 Part 3: The Elections SWEDEN’S LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT Sweden has three levels of government: national, regional and local – and at a European level following Sweden's entry into the European Union in 1995. There is no hierarchy among the levels of government and each level has its own specific responsibilities. At the national level, the people are represented by the Swedish parliament (hereafter referred to as the Riksdag), which is the supreme political decision-making body in Sweden. Since 1971, the Swedish Riksdag is a unicameral body composed of 349 members elected, for a fixed four-year term. There are currently eight parties represented in the Riksdag: the Social Democratic Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party, the Liberal Party, the Centre Party, the Sweden Democrats, the Christian Democrats, and the Left Party. At the regional level, Sweden is divided into 20 counties (län), which include the regions of Gotland, Halland, Västra Götaland and Skåne. Political tasks at this level are undertaken by the county councils (landsting). At the local level, Sweden is divided into 290 municipalities (kommun), each with an elected assembly or council. Municipal and county council/regional assemblies are the highest decision-making bodies at the local and regional levels. At the regional level there are also county administrative boards, the government bodies for the counties. The current Local Government Act, which came into force in 1992, defines the roles of municipalities, county councils and regions as follows: • Municipalities are responsible for matters relating to the inhabitants of the municipality and their immediate environment, such as housing, roads, water supply, schools, public welfare, elderly care and childcare. The municipalities are entitled to levy income taxes on individuals. • The county councils are responsible for overseeing tasks that cannot be handled at the local level by municipalities but which rather require coordination across a larger region, most notably health care. The figure below shows the three democratic levels and their respective responsibilities. Source: Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting, http://www.skl.se 3 Part 3: The Elections SWEDEN’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM In Sweden, the Constitution, the Elections Act and the Election Ordinance are the primary legal instruments regulating the conduct of elections. The election system is based on proportional representation. It is not