Sweden Votes in Parlaimentary Elections

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, (L), is surrounded by people at a shopping mall in Gotebor during the parliamentary elections campaign. Photo by BGNES

Sweden is voting Sunday in parliamentary elections slated to be won by the ruling center-right coalition.

Opinion polls show a lead for the government against the Social Democrats and their allies, following tax cuts and a strong recovery.

The center-left Social Democrats have ruled Sweden for 65 of the past 78 years, and are credited with setting up the country's generous welfare state.

In addition to the center-right victory, a far-right party is tipped to win seats for the first time, but both main political blocs declare they prefer to cooperate with each other than form a coalition with a party which they say is racist and xenophobic.

The Prime Minister said he did not want to speculate on how his Alliance for Sweden coalition would deal with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats if they get into parliament, BBC reports. Immigrants make up 14% of the country's population of 9.4 million.

However, analysts warn a strong swing to the right could cost Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's Alliance for Sweden its majority.

The largest immigrant group is from neighboring Finland, followed by people from Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and Poland.

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