| Country: | Sweden |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 1998 Swedish general election |
| Previous Year: | 1998 |
| Next Election: | 2006 Swedish general election |
| Next Year: | 2006 |
| Seats For Election: | All 349 seats in the Riksdag |
| Majority Seats: | 175 |
| Election Date: | 15 September 2002 |
| Image1: | (Bilden ar tagen vid Nordiska radets session i Oslo, 2003) (7) (cropped).jpg |
| Leader1: | Göran Persson |
| Party1: | Swedish Social Democratic Party |
| Alliance1: | Centre-left |
| Last Election1: | 131 seats |
| Seats1: | 144 |
| Seat Change1: | 13 |
| Popular Vote1: | 2,113,560 |
| Percentage1: | 39.9% |
| Swing1: | 3.5pp |
| Leader2: | Bo Lundgren |
| Party2: | Moderate Party |
| Alliance2: | Centre-right |
| Last Election2: | 82 seats |
| Seats2: | 55 |
| Seat Change2: | 27 |
| Popular Vote2: | 809,041 |
| Percentage2: | 15.3% |
| Swing2: | 7.6pp |
| Image3: | Lars Leijonborg, partiledare Folkpartiet liberalerna, Sverige (Bilden ar tagen vid Nordiska radets session i Oslo, 2003) (cropped).jpg |
| Leader3: | Lars Leijonborg |
| Party3: | Liberal People's Party (Sweden) |
| Alliance3: | Centre-right |
| Last Election3: | 17 seats |
| Popular Vote3: | 710,312 |
| Percentage3: | 13.4% |
| Seats3: | 48 |
| Seat Change3: | 31 |
| Swing3: | 8.7pp |
| Image4: | Alf Svensson juni 2009 crop.jpg |
| Leader4: | Alf Svensson |
| Party4: | Christian Democrats (Sweden) |
| Alliance4: | Centre-right |
| Last Election4: | 42 seats |
| Popular Vote4: | 485,235 |
| Percentage4: | 9.2% |
| Seats4: | 33 |
| Seat Change4: | 9 |
| Swing4: | 2.6pp |
| Image5: | Gudrun Schyman - 16 April 2009 - 1 cropped.jpg |
| Leader5: | Gudrun Schyman |
| Party5: | Left Party (Sweden) |
| Alliance5: | Centre-left |
| Last Election5: | 43 seats |
| Popular Vote5: | 444,854 |
| Percentage5: | 8.4% |
| Seats5: | 30 |
| Seat Change5: | 13 |
| Swing5: | 3.6pp |
| Image6: | Maud Olofsson3 crop1.jpg |
| Leader6: | Maud Olofsson |
| Party6: | Centre Party (Sweden) |
| Alliance6: | Centre-right |
| Last Election6: | 18 seats |
| Popular Vote6: | 328,428 |
| Percentage6: | 6.2% |
| Seats6: | 22 |
| Seat Change6: | 4 |
| Swing6: | 1.1pp |
| Image7: | Peter Eriksson and Maria Wetterstrand.jpg |
| Leader7: | Peter Eriksson Maria Wetterstrand |
| Party7: | Green Party (Sweden) |
| Alliance7: | Centre-left |
| Last Election7: | 16 seats |
| Popular Vote7: | 246,392 |
| Percentage7: | 4.7% |
| Seats7: | 17 |
| Seat Change7: | 1 |
| Swing7: | 0.2pp |
| PM | |
| Before Election: | Göran Persson |
| Before Party: | Swedish Social Democratic Party |
| After Election: | Göran Persson |
| After Party: | Swedish Social Democratic Party |
| Elected Members: | List of members of the Riksdag, 2002–06 |
| Outgoing Members: | List of members of the Riksdag, 1998–2002 |
General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 2002,[1] alongside municipal and county council elections. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, winning 144 of the 349 seats.[2]
After securing a confidence and supply agreement with the Left Party and the Green Party, Prime Minister Göran Persson was able to remain in his position for a third consecutive term as a minority government.
Although the bloc compositions were similar to 1998, the complexions of the centre-right bloc shifted radically. Under new party leader Bo Lundgren, the Moderates lost more than seven percentage points and barely held on as the largest party in its coalition. Only eight municipalities in all of Sweden had the Moderates as the largest party, six of which were in the Stockholm area.[3] The Peoples' Party led by Lars Leijonborg, instead more than doubled its parliamentary delegation and received above 13% of the vote. Lundgren resigned in the wake of the election, leading to the selection of future Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt as the Moderate leader.
Among the four other Riksdag parties, the Christian Democrats and the Left Party both lost ground, whereas the Centre and Green parties managed to reach the parliamentary threshold of four percentage points.
Among minor parties, the Norrbotten Party reached 9.4% of the vote in its county, polling above 20% in some inland areas. However, this was not enough to gain a Riksdag seat.[3] The Sweden Democrats became the eight largest party for the first time, making sizeable gains and winning more council seats than ever before.
| 2002 Swedish general election debates | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Time | Organizers | Moderators | Present Invitee Non-invitee | ||||||||
| S | M | V | KD | C | L | MP | Refs | |||||
| Sveriges Television | Stina LundbergErik Fichtelius [sv] | P Göran Persson | P Bo Lundgren | P Gudrun Schyman | P Alf Svensson | P Maud Olofsson | P Lars Leijonborg | P Peter Eriksson | ||||
See main article: Results of the 2002 Swedish general election.
| Constituency | Total seats | Seats won | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By party | By coalition | |||||||||||
| S | M | F | KD | V | C | MP | ||||||
| Blekinge | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Dalarna | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Gävleborg | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Gothenburg | 18 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 9 | |||
| Gotland | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Halland | 11 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |||
| Jämtland | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||||
| Jönköping | 13 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | |||
| Kalmar | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | |||
| Kronoberg | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Malmö | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | |||||
| Norrbotten | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | |||
| Örebro | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Östergötland | 17 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 8 | ||
| Skåne North and East | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | |||
| Skåne South | 14 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | ||
| Skåne West | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | ||||
| Södermanland | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Stockholm County | 39 | 13 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 18 | 21 | ||
| Stockholm Municipality | 29 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 15 | |||
| Uppsala | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | ||
| Värmland | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Västerbotten | 11 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | ||
| Västernorrland | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | |||
| Västmanland | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | |||
| Västra Götaland East | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | |||
| Västra Götaland North | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | ||
| Västra Götaland South | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Västra Götaland West | 13 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | ||
| Total | 349 | 144 | 55 | 48 | 33 | 30 | 22 | 17 | 191 | 158 | ||
| Source: Statistics Sweden | ||||||||||||