NEAR final results in Sweden’s weekend election showed yesterday that a coalition of right-wing parties is expected to defeat a left-wing bloc headed by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

Overall, a conservative opposition bloc including the far-right anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, had an extremely narrow lead over the incumbent centre-left with 94 per cent of the votes counted.

Analysts expected that the final tally would confirm a conservative win, but the election was so close that electoral officials said they would not have the final result until outstanding postal votes and votes from abroad are counted later in the week.

The Sweden Democrats, which won its best result since entering parliament in 2010, had links to fascist and neonazi movements in the 1980s. Over the past two decades, the party has worked to change its image.