First, the Malmö List and the Civic Coalition sounded the alarm. Now the Christian Family Party is also reporting that their ballots were missing from several polling places. In Fittja, voters reportedly had to wait about 40 minutes before the party’s ballots were made available.
Reports of problems with the ballots of smaller parties continue during the first few days of early voting.
This time, the information comes from Botkyrka. The chairperson of the Christian Family Party Aday Bethkinne states on X that both election officials and voters noticed that the party's ballots were missing from several polling places, while the ballots of the established parties were present.
Demanded that the venue be closed
The situation became particularly serious in Fittja, where, according to Bethkinne, voting continued for about 40 minutes without the party’s ballots having been made available.
”I therefore demanded that the polling place be closed until all ballots were in place and the same conditions applied to all parties. As you can both hear and see, it was chaos in the polling place.”
A video posted along with the post shows, among other things, ballot boxes inside the venue. Bethkinne says the party has also encountered problems elsewhere.
”At other polling places, we were told that our party wasn’t on the list or that our ballots were missing, even though it later turned out that they were there.”
Submit a report to three agencies
These incidents mean that yet another small party is reporting problems with ballots, after Malmölistan raised the alarm in Malmö and Medborgerlig Samling reported similar incidents in Järfälla, among other places.
The Christian Family Party has now taken the next step formally.
”We have now reported the incident to the Botkyrka Election Board, the Election Authority, and the County Administrative Board, and we are demanding a prompt investigation and a written response.”
Urges voters to document
Bethkinne also urges voters who discover missing or mishandled ballots to take photos or videos, notify the poll workers, and contact the party.
The cause of the problems in Botkyrka has not yet been determined. However, with reports coming in from several political parties and municipalities, pressure is mounting on the election administration to explain why ballots are missing when voters arrive to cast their votes.
