Polling stations opened at 8:00 (0600 GMT) Sunday morning for a Swedish parliamentary election, in which a center-right alliance was expected to challenge the ruling Social Democrats and their allies.

Some 6.9 million voters are entitled to cast ballots in the election, which will end at 20:00 (1800 GMT). Preliminary results are expected on Sunday by around 2030 GMT.

Previous opinion polls had put Fredrik Reinfeldt's four-party alliance just ahead of a bloc led by Prime Minister Goran Persson's Social Democrats.

Source: Xinhua