Women, young people quit politics most often

Women and young politicians in Sweden are the most likely to abandon elected office at the municipal level, a new review of political parties' personnel challenges showed on Monday.

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Women and younger politicians appeared the most frequently in the resignation statistics.

Of parties with parliamentary representation, the Sweden Democrats face the biggest challenge filling its seats at local level, reported Sveriges Radio (SR).

As many as 66 percent of Sweden Democrat politicians younger than 30 had chosen to give up their political work at local level, the review showed.

The Left Party faced the second-largest challenge and has seen about 31 percent of young municipal politicians quit.

Over the entire political spectrum, about 15 percent of elected politicians, regardless of gender and age, have left municipal office. The drop-off rate has gone up by 3 percentage points in the period since the 2010 elections compared to the previous political term (2006-2010).

Overall, the Sweden Democrats saw the biggest proportional resignation wave as 47 percent of municipal politicians had quit by January 2013.

The Green Party had the second most significant drop-off rate at 18 percent, while the Centre Party in contrast fared well in the statistics with 11.6 percent of its municipal representatives leaving office - the lowest rate among the political parties.

Yet even the Centre Party's relatively low figure represents an increase by a third compared to the previous term in office, SR noted.

TT/The Local/at
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