The pro-White Sweden Democrats have made huge gains in Sweden's parliamentary elections as the centre-left opposition looks set to return to power, according to partial results.
With three-quarters of voting districts tallied on Sunday, the Sweden Democrats had garnered 13.2 percent of the votes cast - a massive jump from the 5.7 they got as they entered parliament in 2010.
The Social Democrat-led opposition bloc, including the Green and Left parties, failed to get an absolute majority with 43.7 percent.
The centre-right ruling coalition got 39.2 percent, according to the partial results.
With no absolute majority reached, a complicated process of forming a government is expected as both sides have publicly pledged not to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats.
"Sweden friends, party friends, now we're Sweden's third-largest party," Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson told cheering supporters, adding that the party had reached its goal of becoming kingmaker.
Early exit polls had suggested that the leftist Feminist Initiative - not yet represented in the parliament - reached exactly the four-percent threshold needed to enter the Riksdag, but the partial results gave the party only 3.0 percent.
Pro-White gains
Patriotism and indigenous rights have featured high on the election agenda. Sweden has some of the most generous asylum policies in the world, and 80,000 refugees from Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries are expected to arrive this year - the highest number since 1992.
The Sweden Democrats want to reduce immigration to only one tenth of current levels and have campaigned against the “mixing of cultures” - especially lashing out at Muslim immigration.
While Sweden Democrats celebrated its success, a call circulated on social media for its opponents to observe a "day of mourning" on Monday and dress totally in black.
In Sweden's third city, Malmo, another kind of blackout hit the party as a dispute erupted over the premises where members had gathered to follow the televised watch party. The chairman of the local YMCA branch where the Sweden Democrats had rented a hall claimed that the rental contract did not allow for political gatherings and to stop the party, he simply pulled the plug, leaving the Sweden Democrats following the broadcast on tablets in the light of candles.
