[Marxism] Inuit-based left party wins Greenland elections

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://links.org.au/node/807/19981#comment-19981
June 3, 2009

COPENHAGEN - A left-wing opposition party won Greenland's parliamentary
election and was set to oust the long-governing Social Democrats as the
ice-capped island prepares for more autonomy from Denmark, official results
showed Wednesday.

The next government will be the first to lead the semiautonomous Danish
territory under an expanded home rule agreement that takes effect later this
month.

With all districts counted, the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit party, or IA,
won nearly 44 percent of the vote, doubling its support from the last
election four years ago, the election commission said.

The governing Siumut party, in power since 1979, got just over 26 percent,
apparently punished by voters in Tuesday's election for a series of
corruption scandals.

With 14 seats, the IA still needs support from smaller parties to have a
majority in the 31-member assembly.

"Greenland deserves this," IA leader Kuupik Kleist told celebrating
supporters in Nuuk, Greenland's capital. He didn't say which parties he
would approach for coalition building but ruled out Premier Hans Enoksen's
Siumut party.

Enoksen called the snap election after Greenlanders decided in a November
referendum to loosen ties with Denmark, which has controlled the giant
island since the 18th century.

The new arrangement, which takes effect on June 21, will make Greenlandic,
an Inuit tongue, the official language and gradually shift control over the
local police force, courts and the coast guard to Greenland's government.

The plan also sets out new rules for splitting potential oil revenue with
Denmark - a key issue in a region where new natural resources could be
exposed by melting sea ice and glaciers. Talks with Denmark on implementing
the program are set to begin later this month.

Copenhagen, whose subsidies account for two-thirds of the island's economy,
will still control defense and foreign policy and Danish figurehead monarch
Queen Margrethe remains the head of state.

More than 70 percent of the 40,000 eligible voters turned out for the
election, which was dominated by allegations of nepotism and misuse of
public funds.

Several politicians, including top Siumut members, have been found guilty of
using public money for private uses. Former Housing Minister Jens Napaattooq
was convicted of spending 128,366 kroner ($24,000) in taxpayer money on
personal dinners, trips and alcohol, and was sentenced to four months in
prison.

The Siumut party was also hurt by an internal power struggle, with Alega
Hammond, a former finance minister, trying to oust Enoksen as party leader.

"The figures are, of course, thought-provoking," Enoksen told the Greenland
newspaper AG in response to the election results.

Siumut and its coalition partner Atasut together won 12 seats, losing their
majority in the Landsting, or parliament. The center-right Democrats won
four seats and the small Kattusseqatigiit Partiiat grabbed the final seat
with 4 percent of the votes.

All parties support Greenland's path toward increasing self-governance.

Greenland became a colony of Denmark in 1775, and was a Danish province from
1953-1979.






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