Swedish public TV declares opposition has won election

Sweden's centre-left opposition has defeated the incumbent right-wing governing bloc by just one seat, public broadcaster SVT has said, after 99% of the votes in Sunday's parliamentary election had been counted.

Less than 30,000 votes separated the two blocs but with fewer than 1% of districts left to count, parties led by opposition leader Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats looked set to win 175 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, signalling a change of government.

"The likelihood of a turnaround at this stage is so low that we can confidently state that the opposition will secure the most seats in this election," SVT said.

The right-wing governing bloc of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which includes the far-right Sweden Democrats, was meanwhile on track to win 174 seats, data from Sweden's election authority showed.

The agency is now counting late incoming ballots from home and overseas and has said this process may go on until tomorrow before all votes are accounted for.