SOCIALIST GAINS IN SWEDEN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21894, 22 September 1936, Page 9

SOCIALIST GAINS IN SWEDEN

general election for LOWER CHAMBER majority for parties of LEFT EXPECTED iUUmD FtBSjS AMOCIATIOX —COPTfcIG HT.) (Received September 21, 9.30 p.m.) STOCKHOLM, September 20. i The Swedish general election results in 17 out of 28 constituencies give the Social Democrats eight gains. A social communist majority is expected. A later return shows that the. social communist majority is 123 out of 230 seats. It is the first in Sweden’s history. _ Thf Swedish Legislature—the Riksdag—is divided into two chambers, which in all questions have equal competence and authority. The First, or Upper, Chamber, which is partially re-elected each year, has 150 members,, who are elected by the county councils, and in towns which a r’ e represented 'in the county counspecially appointed electors. The Second, or Lower Chamber, which is concerned in the election reported in the cable message, is composed of 230 members, who are elected for a period of four years, on an almost universal suffrage of men and women who have reached their twenty-fourth year. There are, 28 electoral areas, and the elections for this chamber, as for the Upper Chamber, are conducted cn a system of proportional representation. Swedish parliamentary procedure provides that the leading parties in the Riksdag snould exercise a decisive influence cn the composition of the Cabinet; but as no party has had an absolute majority in the chamber, the Government has not for a considerable time been able to work on strict party lines, but has rather followed the line of least resistance. The state of the parties in the Lower Chamber after the last general election in September, 1932, was:—Right party 52 members. Farmers’ Union 37, People’s party 25, Social Democratic Labour party 102, Socialist partv 8. National party 3. International Communists 2. Independent 1. The programme of the Socialist Democratic Labour party, which has gamed, in this election, is one of socialist economic reform and support of the League of Nations. It was in power after 1932. but in June this year a Farmers’ Union Government was formed.