Maja Rubin, membership manager for the Social Democrats in Bromölla, says that she and a colleague knocked on the suspect's door on Thursday.
"Then we felt that he was very threatening and so on. He thought we were disturbing him," she tells TT.
The two election workers continued up the stairs. Later, the man was waiting for them. He attacked Rubin's colleague with kicks and punches to the head, she says.
It was terrible. I screamed for help and called 911 and tried to fight him off. It went on for a very long time.
Maja Rubin managed to get her colleague out into the street, where they were given a lift by a driver they met. The victim was later taken to hospital by ambulance. He was able to leave the hospital during the night and is reportedly doing well.
“Attack on us”
Maja Rubin is unsure whether the attack occurred because the man felt disturbed, or if it was politically motivated.
When we ran into him before, he wasn't upset like that, it was just like it came afterwards. But it felt like an attack on us.
An 18-year-old man has been arrested for aggravated assault. Prosecutor Johan Eriksson says it is early in the investigation.
As things stand right now, it's probably just a coincidence that it happened to be an election worker who was assaulted right there and then.
However, he does not rule out that it is politically motivated.
I'm not saying that I think it isn't, but I'm also not saying that I think it is, because nothing concrete has emerged.
Anderson: Terrible.
S leader Magdalena Andersson tells TT that she spoke with the election worker during the morning and describes him as "collected". She says she was very moved by the conversation.
We do not need a Sweden where conflicts and division are increasing, even if we do not know exactly what is behind this.
This is a young person who is committed to building a better country, and to be met with this is terrible.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) describes it as "an incredibly terrible event".
Swedish democracy is based on thousands of election workers wanting, being able and daring to go out into the city or knock on doors.
SD leader Jimmie Åkesson also comments: "Attacking an election worker is not only an attack on the individual, but also an attack on our democracy," he writes on X.
