STOCKHOLM, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Sweden’s parliament speaker said on Thursday he has decided lawmakers will vote on Centre Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist as prime minister although she has earlier said she had not been able to secure a majority.
Last month’s ballot gave the centre-left 176 of 349 seats in parliament, but while all four opposition parties favour Social Democrats leader Magdalena Andersson as prime minister, they do not agree on who should be part of a new government.
• Thand Ringqvist on Monday abandoned an attempt to forge a centrist coalition and parliament is widely expected to reject the proposal
• Speaker Andreas Norlen told a press conference that if Thand Ringqvist fails in the vote on Tuesday, he will ask Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderates party to attempt to form a government
• Lawmakers on October 15 rejected Andersson’s bid to form a minority cabinet, as widely expected, in the first of up to four votes before a fresh election must be called
• There is little indication so far that Kristersson, whose party is the second-biggest after the Social Democrats, would be able to secure a majority, and the task of government formation could thus revert to Andersson at a later time
• Opinion polls published in recent days indicate that support for the Moderates has increased since the election
• Sweden last held a new early election in 1958
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
