Greenland election: opposition Democrat party wins surprise victory amid spectre of Trump

The centre-right Democrat party has won the most votes in Greenland’s parliamentary elections, a surprise result as the territory went to the polls in the shadow of US president Donald Trump’s threat to take control of it “one way or another”.

None of the parties are set to win a majority of the 31 seats in parliament, so negotiations to form a coalition will be held in the coming days.

“The Democrats are open to talks with all parties and are seeking unity. Especially with what is going on in the world,” said the party’s 33-year-old leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, a former badminton champion.

He said he was surprised by the party’s victory. “We didn’t expect the election to have this outcome, we’re very happy.”

With 90% of the vote counted, the Democratic party – which describes itself as “social liberal” and has also called for independence but in the longer term – held a 29.9% share of the vote, an insurmountable lead, Greenland’s public broadcaster KNR reported.

It is followed by the Naleraq party, which looked set to more than double its share of the vote to 24.5%.

Both the Democrats and the second-place party, Naleraq, favour independence from Denmark, but they differ on the pace of change. Naleraq is the most aggressively pro-independence, while the Democrats favour a more moderate pace.

“We respect the election result,” outgoing prime minister Múte Egede, who leads the left-green Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, told KNR. The party stands at a 21.4% vote share. The leader of the Siumut party, IA’s coalition partner, conceded defeat.

The future government is expected to map out a timeline for independence, which is backed by a large majority of Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants.

Candidate Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, of the Naleraq party, center, dances during a party after parliamentary elections in Nuuk, Greenland Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Possibly signalling a Trump effect, turnout in Tuesday’s election was higher than usual, election officials said.

The island’s inhabitants – almost 90% of whom are Inuit – say they are tired of being treated like second-class citizens by their former colonial power Denmark, which they accuse of having historically suppressed their culture, carried out forced sterilisations and removed children from their families.

The surprise results came after huge crowds streamed into the polling station in the capital, Nuuk, throughout the day, warmed by sunny skies. Exhausted voting officials closed the polls well after the planned 8pm cutoff on Tuesday to make sure everyone in line got a chance to cast their ballot.

Egede in February called elections early, saying the country needed to be united during a “serious time” that is unlike anything Greenland has ever experienced.

Trump has been outspoken about his desire to control Greenland, telling a joint session of Congress last week that he thought the US was going to get it “one way or the other”.

Greenland, a self-governing region of Denmark, straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and has rich deposits of the rare earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

Egede’s Inuit Ataqatigiit (United Inuit) had been widely expected to win the contest, followed by Siumut — two parties which had dominated Greenland’s politics in recent years.

A break from Denmark wasn’t on the ballot, but it was on everyone’s mind. The island of 56,000 people has been on a path toward independence since at least 2009, and the 31 lawmakers elected will shape the island’s future as it debates whether the time has come to declare independence.