Swedes voted on whether to join the 12-member euro zone yesterday with the result wide open after sympathy for murdered pro-euro Foreign Minister Anna Lindh eroded a long "No" lead in opinion polls.
Polling stations opened at 8am and were to close at 8pm, with preliminary results expected about 9.30pm.
A "Yes" vote in the broadly EU-sceptic Nordic nation would make it the first European state to endorse the 12-nation euro at the ballot box since its launch in 1999. A "No" would keep it outside with Britain and Denmark.
The Danes rejected the euro in a September 2000 referendum, which the "No" side won by 53-47 percent.
Sweden had looked likely to return a resounding "No" until Lindh, the popular 46-year-old foreign minister and mother of two, was knifed to death while shopping at a Stockholm department store.
Police hunting her killer circulated security video pictures of a dark-haired man in a baseball cap and grey college sweater. The man remained at large yesterday, evoking painful memories of the 1986 assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme a few blocks away by gunshot. Palme's killer has not been found.
Politicians suspended all campaigning after Lindh died early on Thursday and a wave of emotion swept the nation. Flowers, notes and children's drawings piled up outside the store in central Stockholm and teary-eyed Swedes paid their respects to the woman who had been tipped as the next prime minister.
Some opinion polls showed a surge in support for the "Yes" side, which has lagged behind the "No" side since April.
On Saturday, a Gallup poll gave the "Yes" side, led by Prime Minister Goran Persson and supported by the political establishment and big business, a 43-42 percent lead. But a Temo poll saw the "No" camp, with the support of the left, Greens and many women, winning by 46-40 percent.
"I'm voting `No'," said Birgitta Henriksson, 50, shopping at a market early on Sunday. "I think the murder will make many undecided people vote `Yes'. I liked her too, but that's no reason to change my decision on the euro."
Until Lindh's murder the debate had focused on whether the euro would help or hinder Sweden's relative economic advantages over the euro zone -- which has higher unemployment and lower growth -- and what it would mean for Sweden's cherished cradle-to-grave welfare state, funded by some of the world's highest taxes.
Euroskeptics say handing over monetary tools would leave them unshielded from economic shocks, while pro-euro Swedes think joining the final phase of the Economic and Monetary Union would boost trade and ensure future growth.
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