Just seven months after gaining Swedish citizenship, ninth-placed Left Party candidate wins a seat in parliament on personal votes

Euro Times – Stockholm

Mohamed Abdukardir Ali, a 30-year-old Left Party candidate from Borlänge, has secured a seat in Sweden’s newly elected parliament only around seven months after being granted Swedish citizenship, in one of the notable personal-vote outcomes of the 2026 election.

Ali had been placed ninth on the Left Party’s candidate list in Dalarna. The final count showed that he received 648 personal votes, enough to move past candidates placed ahead of him and take the party’s parliamentary seat from the constituency.

According to SVT, Ali’s personal votes mean he enters parliament instead of Kajsa Fredholm, the Left Party’s climate-policy spokesperson.

Citizenship granted in February 2026

The timing has drawn particular attention. Ali, who is originally from Somalia, had an application for Swedish citizenship rejected in 2024 because of debts. In February 2026, the Swedish Migration Agency made a new assessment and granted him citizenship. Roughly seven months later, he was elected to the Riksdag.

Ali has been a member of the Left Party for only about a year. SVT reported that he had not previously held a political office and did not run his own personal election campaign or have personal campaign material.

He told Expressen that he himself was surprised by the level of personal support and said that entering parliament gives him a major responsibility to learn more about the issues and represent the party in the best possible way.

Local party representative: “I don’t really know who he is”

The result also surprised figures within the party locally. Matts Hammarqvist, the Left Party’s group leader in Borlänge, told Expressen that he did not really know who Ali was. The party’s Borlänge chairman, Erik Buller, however, said he had no reason to believe Ali would not be a good representative for the party in parliament.

Former Moderate politician Agneta Nyvall told Expressen that Ali has a large network, particularly within Borlänge’s Somali community.

Ali has also said that he intends to complete his debt-restructuring plan and meet his financial obligations.

One of eight candidates elected through personal votes

When the election count was completed, Ali was among eight candidates nationwide who had received enough personal votes to pass candidates placed above them on their respective party lists. More than a third of the members elected to the new Riksdag are newcomers.

The case illustrates the role of Sweden’s personal-vote system, which allows voters not only to choose a party but also to mark a specific candidate and, when the required threshold is reached, alter the order established on a party’s electoral list.