General elections were held in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

on 4 April 1979, the first election to the new

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

after the introduction of

home rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

. The result was a victory for the separatist and left wing

Siumut Siumut (, ) is a political party in Greenland in the social democratic tradition. Since the establishment of home rule in 1979, it has been the dominant party in Greenland. Siumut is led by Erik Jensen, who beat the then-incumbent Prime Ministe ...

, which won 13 of the 21 seats in the

, over the unionist and moderate

Atassut Atassut ( en, Cohesion / Link / Togetherness / Solidarity; also referred to as Feeling of Community) is a liberal-conservative and unionist political party in Greenland. Founded on 29 April 1978, Atassut is an established partner of the Libera ...

.Greenland
Parties and Elections The difference in seats won became relatively large because of the use of

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in five constituencies in northern and eastern Greenland, which were all won by Siumut, while the two parties split the 16 seats in the multi member constituencies in Western Greenland evenly. As a result of the election

Jonathan Motzfeldt Jonathan Jakob Jørgen Otto Motzfeldt (25 September 1938 – 28 October 2010) was a Greenlandic priest and politician. He is considered one of the leading figures in the establishment of Greenland Home Rule. Jonathan Motzfeldt was the first pr ...

from Siumut became the first head of government in Greenland.

Results

References

{{Greenlandic elections Elections in Greenland

1979 in Greenland