A former journalist and Swedish lawmaker Håkan Juholt was nominated Thursday to lead the opposition Social Democrats, who suffered a stinging defeat in last September's general election.

The 48-year-old candidate will come up for a leadership vote during a special party congress on March 25-27.

He would succeed Mona Sahlin, who resigned after the Social Democrats scored their worst result in nearly a century garnering 30.7 percent of the vote in the last election.

Juholt spent several years as a journalist and photographer for Nyheterna, a local Social-Democrat newspaper, before becoming a member of parliament in 1994.

The mustachioed specialist on defence issues cites assassinated premier Olof Palme as a source of inspiration.

The commission charged with proposing candidates has also named Carin Jamtin, a 46-year-old opposition member of Stockholm's municipal council, for the number two post in the party.