• Sweden edition

Polls back both sides ahead of election re-run

Published: 15 May 11 10:27 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/33778/20110515/

The parties on both sides of the Swedish political spectrum were given a boost in last minute polls ahead of Sunday's municipal election re-run in Västra Götaland in western Sweden.

Surveys carried out leading up to todays election suggest that the Social Democrats have a slight advantage at the polling booths, while Fredrik Reinfeldt enjoys more faith than new red-green leader Håkan Juholt.

The other main question at the election today will be how many people bother registering their vote, with fears rising that the turnout could reach a record low.

Sweden’s Election Review Board (Valprövningsnämnden) announced in February that the election in Vätra Götaland, Western Sweden, would need to be re-run after irregularities in the September 2010 vote. It is the fourth time that such an event has taken place in Sweden.

Despite fears over the turnout, the re-election gives the opposition an opportunity to gauge the popularity of new Social Democrat leader Juholt. Although the latest estimates suggest that his coalition holds a lead over the ruling alliance of some 48,6 percent against 42,7 percent, voters still seemingly have more faith in the capability of Fredrik Reinfeldt to lead a country.

The latest survey carried out by Skop shows that 73 percent of the population believe Reinfeldt is the better leader, with just 27 percent backing Juholt.

If there is a consolation for Juholt, Reinfeldt has lost some ground since the same question was posed in March, while Juholt is considerably more popular than his predecessor Mona Sahlin.

TT/The Local/gm (news@thelocal.se)

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10:36 May 15, 2011 by Brtahan
Did they ask a 1000 persons and gave a report for the whole county? ofcourse they did!
12:33 May 15, 2011 by Syftfel
This useless, pathetic, working class hero and the rest of the party of Palme and Mona, and a few other bottom dwellers of the Left have already laid the groundwork for what they hope will be a victory, by instructing one of their unionized mailmen to dump the election materials in the trash cans. The term "democracy" seem to elude these sewer people. But the again, they're more in tune with the likes of Willis Stoph, Ernst Thälmann and Margot Honecker than with fairness and democratic principles. Vote them out of office!!!
12:42 May 15, 2011 by swedejane
With a face like that, he should not be confident of anything.
13:47 May 15, 2011 by miss79
never bother for his looks but his leadership is important..wat abt Svd?i wanna see Svd rule sweden since many of swedes are complaining alot about Social Democrates..
14:25 May 15, 2011 by Brtahan
He looks like Mario but thats not important, whats important is he can manage and takes care of his party and voters and stand up for whats right ! because everything nowadays is becoming business, coorparates ,big companies are owning everything and moslty steering everything, maybe in the future you have to pay to walk on the pavement because it will be owned by private companies , good luck capitalists.
15:41 May 15, 2011 by StuartM
He's probably a mild improvement on Mona but until the Social Democratic leadership stand up boldly on behalf of working people and tell the capitalist swine where to go I don't think they're ever going to be particularly successful at mobilising the masses in support of their message and beating back the tide of neoliberalism. It should be so obvious to any sensible person that Reinfeldt is tearing apart the fabric of Swedish society and gutting its welfare state in the interests of a tiny rich elite yet the Social Democrats have been pathetically weak when it comes to raising any sort of awareness about such matters. Basically they need a new Palme and I don't really see it in Juholt just like I didn't see it in Mona Sahlin.
17:37 May 15, 2011 by Haubits77B
Please look at Juholt and ask yourself: "Would I buy a used car of this man"?!?
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