Members and parties

The Riksdag has 349 members who are chosen every four years in general elections. In order to become a member of the Riksdag a person must be entitled to vote and must be nominated by a political party. During the current electoral period, 2010-2014, eight parties are represented in the Riksdag.

Below is a list of the parties represented in the Riksdag and of how many seats they have:

• The Social Democratic Party (SocDem), 112 seats
• The Moderate Party (Mod), 107 seats
• The Green Party (Grn), 25 seats
• The Liberal Party (Lib), 24 seats
• The Centre Party (Cen), 23 seats
• The Sweden Democrats (SweDem), 19 seats
• The Left Party (Lft), 19 seats
• The Christian Democrats (ChrDem), 19 seats

The total number of seats above is 348. This is because one member has left his party since the 2010 parliamentary elections. However, he remains a member of the Riksdag, but without any party designation. A member who "opts out" from his or her party group can be identified by the symbol (-) after his or her name in Riksdag contexts.

Who can become a member of the Riksdag?

Anyone wishing to stand for election must:

• be entitled to vote in general elections, i.e. be a Swedish citizen, have reached the age of 18 by election day at the latest and be or have been resident in Sweden 
• be nominated by a political party, since the votes in the election are initially distributed between the parties
• Read more about standing for parliamentary election
• Read more about how the seats in the Riksdag are distributed

How to contact a member of the Riksdag

Do you want to ask a member of the Riksdag about an item of parliamentary business or send a comment? This section provides information in Swedish about contact addresses, party affiliation and the constituencies of all members of the Riksdag. You can also see which parliamentary committees they belong to.