Den samiska väljarkåren i val till Riksdagen

Deltagande och partival

Abstract

The Sámi electorate in elections to the Swedish Riksdag: participation and party choice

The Sámi electorate in Sweden votes to the same extent as the general population in elections to the Riksdag, something that differs considerably from other parts of the world where turnout in elections to national parliaments usually is significantly lower among people who identify themselves as belonging to an Indigenous People in comparison with the majority population. How the Sámi in Sweden vote in parliamentary elections is, however, an unexplored field of research so far. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to analyse how the Sámi electorate votes in elections to the Riksdag, and second, to explain the voters’ choice of party on an individual level. The study shows that the Social Democrats and the Left Party would have had a parliamentary majority in all elections since the 2010 parliamentary elections, if the Sámi electorate had the decision-making power. In comparison with the election results for the entire Swedish population in the elections 2018, the Social Democrats and the Left Party were about ten percent larger within the Sámi electorate, while the Conservative Party and the Sweden Democrats were around ten percent smaller. The analysis also indicates that the voters’ opinions on specific political issues are decisive for how the Sámi electorate votes in the Riksdag elections: the Sámi electorate votes to a large extent on the Left Party and the Green Party, two small parties in the Riksdag clearly stating that they work for a strengthening of Sámi rights, simultaneously as the two parties that most clearly has opposed Sámi rights, the Conservative Party and the Sweden Democrats, have a considerably weaker support among the Sámi in comparison to the majority population in general.