Election polls close in Greenland’s capital as Trump seeks control
Certification of the results is expected to take several weeks.
The polling station in Greenland’s capital closed on Tuesday in a closely watched parliamentary election that will determine the leaders who will confront US President Donald Trump’s effort to take control of the strategically placed Arctic country.
Unofficial election results should be available soon after polls close, but they will not be certified for weeks as ballot papers make their way to the capital from remote settlements by boat, plane and helicopter.
That is because there are no roads connecting communities across the island’s 2.16 million square kilometres (836,330 square miles).
Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede in February called elections a little early, saying the country needed to be united during a “serious time” that is unlike anything Greenland has ever experienced.
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 items such as mobile phones and renewable energy technology.
Mr 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”.
While the island of 56,000 people has been on a path towards independence since at least 2009, a break from Denmark is not on the ballot, even though it is on everyone’s mind.
Voters will instead elect 31 politicians who will shape the island’s future at a defining moment in history.
