Record turnout for Church election

The turn-out for this weekend's Church of Sweden election is the highest since the 1950s.

The Social Democrats gained most votes, while the Sweden Democrats had the highest increase of votes.

There were queues to several voting stations on Sunday, as members of the Swedish Church turned out to vote in the church elections in unusually high numbers.

According to the preliminary figures, over 920,000 people cast their votes in Sunday's election, putting the the turn-out to 18.22 per cent. That can be compared to just under 13 per cent in the last election.

"It is fantastic that we have reached over 18 per cent turn-out. Last time we had such figures were in the 1950s," said election co-ordinator Anki Bondesson.

There are currently about 5.2 million members of the Swedish Church, who are eligible to vote in the elections, which take place every four years.

The Social Democrats continue to be the biggest party, gaining 30 per cent of the seats in the Church Assembly and a small increase compared to the last election.

The Sweden Democrats increased the most since the last election, gaining just over nine per cent, compared to six per cent in 2013.

Preliminary results in the national church elections 2017 (the result from 2013 in parenthesis).

• The Social Democrats: 30.5 % (29.4) 
• Centre-right grouping Borgerligt Alternativ: 8.7 % (12.6) 
• The Centre Party: 13.9 % (11.9) 
• Free Liberals in the Swedish Church FiSK: 2.9 %(3.3) 
• Church-specific party Frimodig kyrka: 3.9 % (4.8) 
• Christian Democrats in the Swedish Church: 3.0 % (4.8)
• Green Party members of the Swedish Church: 2.3 % (4.7)
• Non-party political grouping POSK: 17.2 % (15.3) 
• Sweden Democrats: 9.2 % (6.0) 
• The Left Party in the Swedish Church: 3.6 % (2.4) 
• Church-specific party Open Church: 4.4 % (4.6) 

(This regards the votes for the 251 seats in national Church Assembly only - ie not the votes to local and regional church assemblies. Only parties that got at least two per cent of the votes are on this list).