Stockholm  - Swedish voters have changed plans for several candidates that ran in the European Parliament elections including the wife of Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, tallies said Tuesday.

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, 46, was poised to win one of the 18 seats Sweden has in the pan-European legislature when one third of the personal votes were counted by the Swedish Election Authority.

Italian-born Corazza Bildt's tally placed her in second place on the conservative Moderate Party list of elected candidates, shadowing top-candidate Gunnar Hokmark and signalling she would clinch one of the party's four seats.

The vote count was due to be completed Wednesday.

The outcome would be an upset since Corazza Bildt was bumped down to eighth place by the party's nominating committee although a member vote had placed her on third place on the party ticket.

Corazza Bildt, who has worked for the United Nations on the Balkans, attributed her "dedication" to peace and free enterprise as factors that voters appreciated.

She also drew on supporters across the country and the use of social networking sites like Facebook to push her campaign for better food quality and better rights for women.

The Christian Democrats also faced a shake-up in their line-up.

Former party leader Alf Svensson, 70, was way ahead of the ticket's first name, Ella Bohlin, and almost certain of winning the party's single seat in the European Parliament.

Svensson had 35 per cent of the personal votes marked by Christian Democrat voters while Bohlin was on 19 per cent, tallies showed.

Svensson stepped down 2004 as party leader after serving 31 years as leader, a Swedish political record, and has often been described as more popular than his own party.

During his tenure, the party entered the Swedish parliament and is currently one of the four members in the ruling centre-right coalition.(dpa)