Sweden election results: Who is leading in Sweden election?
SWEDEN took to the polls this weekend in a closely fought election to chose the country's new prime minister - but what are the results and who is in the lead?
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Sweden has seen its most divisive election yet with far-right leaders making serious gains inside the liberal political spectrum.
Anti-EU party the Sweden Democrats proved popular with voters as a result of increased fears over rising immigration levels in the last three years.
Despite coming third - with 17.6 percent of the vote - the far-right party says it is expects to be “kingmaker” in the coming negotiations.
But the country’s main coalitions have already said they will refuse to work with the extremist party, plunging Sweden into choas with weeks of negotiations now ahead.
Who is leading in Sweden election?
Following 99 percent of the vote count, the incumbent Social Democrats and Greens are in the lead with 40.6 percent of votes.
This breaks down as the Centre Party having 8.6 percent, the Christian Democrats on 6.4 percent, Liberals 5.5 percent and Green Party on 4.3 percent.
The centre-left party squeezed just in front of its centre-right coalition rivals Alliance, which trailed on 40.3 percent.
The final results will not be announced until Wednesday once overseas votes have been counted.
At the moment, Social Democrat leader and current Prime Minister Stefan Lofven does not have the necessary 175 seats for his party to retain power.
The centre-left have 144 seats in the 349-seat Parliament, while the Alliance has 142.
At present, even after Wednesday’s result is announced, a hung Parliament is expected to be declared.
And there are fears that progress on declaring a ruling government will be slow if parties refuse to work with one another.
Chief analyst at Nordea Markets said: "It will take weeks or months to form a government.
"The talks will indeed be very complicated.
"We have seen the problems in the past four years with a weak minority government and now we will see the same problems but even more so."
What happens now?
Leaders of the mainstream parties are expected to meet later on today to discuss possible coalitions.
The Sweden Democrats have already threatened to undermine any bloc which doesn’t include them in policy making.
Party leader Jimmie Akesson told his supporters: “We will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years.”