Sweden investigates suspected election fraud in Borlänge. So far it concerns one Left Party seat

Swedish police are investigating suspicions that someone in Borlänge, in central Sweden, drove voters to polling stations and handed them Left Party ballots on which a candidate's name had already been marked with a cross. According to Sveriges Radio, the prosecutor confirmed that the investigation is linked to the campaign of newly elected MP Mohamed Abdukardir Ali, but has not yet officially notified anyone of suspicion. Aftonbladet ↗ On Thursday, 24 September, Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar broke three days of silence, the prosecutor denied having forbidden police to search the surveilled car, and police have registered 58 reports of unlawful influencing of voting across Sweden. SVT ↗ Aftonbladet ↗ Aftonbladet ↗

The case has been taken over by the police's National Operations Department, NOA, and the commission that reviews elections has, according to Svenska Dagbladet, received around 5,000 submissions. Svenska Dagbladet ↗ Norway's Aftenposten writes that the affair is shaking Swedish politics just as a new government is being formed after a tight election and the departure of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. According to Expressen, for now the question is who will take one Left Party seat. The majority could be endangered only by a repeat election in Dalarna, something that has never been ordered in a Riksdag election. Aftenposten ↗

What exactly the police are investigating

It all began with an anonymous report. According to SVT, police then surveilled cars in Borlänge that, during early voting, drove voters to polling stations and back. According to SVT, people went around with Left Party ballots on which one candidate's name was already marked with a cross and persuaded voters to use them. SVT names two party politicians as the central figures, Ali and Ahmed Abas Omar. SVT ↗

According to Aftonbladet, whose findings SVT also picked up, police also documented a cash withdrawal from an ATM and how the same person later handed out money as well as ballots to voters. What the money was for is not yet clear, and the prosecutor did not confirm these details. SVT ↗ According to Aftonbladet, a pre-marked ballot need not in itself be illegal if the cross is made by hand. In 2018, both the Halland County Administrative Board and the commission described a similar practice by the Sweden Democrats as "inappropriate", but not as unlawful influencing of the vote. Aftonbladet ↗ Joakim Nergelius, professor of constitutional law at Örebro University, told Expressen that the rules are not clear. He himself had assumed that pre-marked ballots are not permitted, but people have contacted him with examples where county administrative boards accepted them if the cross had been made by hand rather than mechanically. He considers such a practice contrary to the purpose of elections, since it is the voter who should decide on the candidate. Paying a voter, on the other hand, is in his view clearly election fraud. Expressen ↗

With 648 preference votes, Ali moved from ninth place on the list into parliament and overtook the list's number one, the party's climate policy spokesperson Kajsa Fredholm, who thereby lost her seat. Aftonbladet ↗ Asked by SVT whether he has anything to do with the suspicion, he replied: "It is completely, completely wrong. I didn't do it. I know the law." SVT ↗

The investigation was halted before the election

Police handed the surveillance material to the prosecutor on 1 September, that is, before the 13 September election. The prosecutor halted the investigation on 8 September because of problems with the evidence and reopened it on 21 September, after the election, on the grounds that "new circumstances" justified it. According to prosecution documents seen by SVT, a third suspect was then added to the file. The identities of all three are confidential, and none of them has been officially notified of suspicion. SVT ↗

Dagens Nyheter found that police officers were dissatisfied with the halting of the investigation. "The police were very irritated that they were prevented from getting to the bottom of it," an unnamed source told the paper. Dagens Nyheter ↗

Prosecutor Oskar Edvardsson rejected this in a press statement on Thursday. According to Dagens Nyheter, police in Borlänge wanted to search the surveilled car and look in it for pre-marked ballots, but the head of the investigation is said to have refused. "That decision was not made by me or by any other prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Unit," Edvardsson said. According to the prosecution, no one is in custody and no one has been notified of suspicion; it did not say what steps the investigators are taking. Aftonbladet ↗

On 23 September, prosecutor Oskar Edvardsson announced that his unit is also investigating a second case, unrelated to Borlänge. He classifies it as an unlawful advantage in voting, giving an attempt to sell one's own vote as an example of such an act. One person is suspected in it. SVT ↗

On Thursday, police said they have registered 58 reports of unlawful influencing of voting across Sweden, most of them from the weeks before and after the election. They most often involve stolen, hidden or unplaced ballots and attempts to influence how others vote; according to police, a case similar to the one in Dalarna is not among them. Two cases in Luleå and Piteå in the north of the country are being investigated separately, where voters in Facebook sales groups were offered 300 kronor to "vote right for Sweden". The post does not name a party, but its image comes from a Sweden Democrats campaign, and their district chair condemned vote buying. Aftonbladet ↗ Aftonbladet ↗

Could it change the election result?

The centre-left bloc won by a margin of three seats, 176 to 173, and after the count Kristersson asked to be relieved of office. According to commission chair Svante O. Johansson, two conditions must be met for the result to be annulled: an irregularity and its effect on the result. According to Expressen, the 648 preference votes for Ali alone do not change the distribution of seats between the parties; they decide only who from the Left Party will take its single seat for Dalarna. Expressen ↗

Political scientist Erik Wångmar of Linnaeus University told SVT that in a repeat election in the Dalarna district, seats could also be at stake. Such a step, however, would have no precedent. According to Aftonbladet, a repeat election to the Riksdag has never yet been ordered in any district, and in Dalarna it would affect about 223,000 voters. SVT ↗ Aftonbladet ↗

The commission will begin dealing with the case only after 29 September, when the deadline for appeals expires. It does not have to wait for the police, because according to Johansson the burden of proof in an election review is the reverse of that in criminal proceedings. After the last election, it ruled on the Riksdag in December. Expressen ↗

How the neighbours see it

Norway's Aftenposten links the affair to the government negotiations. According to the paper, the Swedes are trying to form a cabinet from parties "that hardly want to sit in one room", and the Left Party has been hit by a scandal with "crazy ingredients". Aftenposten ↗

Finland's Helsingin Sanomat writes that the suspicion is already overshadowing exploratory talks on a new government. Denmark's Politiken recalls Ali's statement to Expressen that the personal support surprised him, because he himself had no campaign or election materials. Helsingin Sanomat ↗ Politiken ↗

Party leader breaks silence, Ali not yet giving up his seat

According to the Left Party, Ali is taking a "time-out" and will not exercise his mandate from the start of the term. According to secretary general Marie Forsberg, however, he will not give up the seat for now. Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar was silent for three days and commented for the first time on Thursday. She called the suspicions "very serious allegations" and explained her silence by saying that it is a personnel matter and the party had to establish the facts and could not rely on media reports. According to her, Ali's time-out means that he will not exercise his mandate during it; she did not specify what exactly it entails. She said it has no effect on the government negotiations: "It is a separate issue and we will continue working on forming a government." SVT ↗ Expressen ↗ Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, who may return to the post of prime minister, called the suspicion "very, very serious". Expressen ↗ Expressen ↗ Dagens Nyheter ↗

Commentator Vesna Prekopic writes in Dagens Nyheter that trust in others is the value Swedes cherish most, and that the suspicion from Borlänge shows how vulnerable it is and how easily it can be abused. Dagens Nyheter ↗

Limits of this view

The details about money and the ATM were reported by Aftonbladet and Expressen citing unnamed sources, and the prosecutor did not confirm them. No one has yet been officially notified of suspicion. Dagens Nyheter spoke with residents of the district where Ali received the most votes, and many of them do not believe the suspicion; according to one, they wanted to "give the new guy a chance". Caution is also warranted so that suspicion of specific individuals is not transferred to the whole neighbourhood. Dagens Nyheter ↗

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*Illustrative photo: party ballots in a Swedish polling station (Linköping, 2010). Photo: LA2, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.*