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 i ...

on 12 March 2013.Mining question dominates Greenland poll
BBC News, 12 March 2013 The opposition

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 ...

party emerged as the largest in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, winning 14 of the 31 seats.Mining proponents win Greenland election
AP, 13 March 2013 On 26 March Siumut leader

Aleqa Hammond Aleqa Hammond (born 23 September 1965) is a Greenlandic politician and former member of the Danish Folketing (parliament). Formerly the leader of the Siumut party, she became Greenland's first female prime minister after her party emerged as the l ...

became Greenland's first female

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Electoral system

The 31 members of

were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

in multi-member constituencies. In

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...

there was just one polling station.

Campaign

The main campaign issue was exploitation of the island's mineral wealth. The ruling

Inuit Ataqatigiit Inuit Ataqatigiit (, , da, Folkets Samfund) is a democratic socialist, separatist political party in Greenland that aims to make Greenland an independent state. The party, founded as a political organisation in 1976, was born out of the increas ...

party supported allowing foreign workers, most of whom would be

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, into the country to work in the mining industry, whilst the Siumut party was opposed to the proposal.

Rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides ( yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silv ...

s were of particular concern.

Results

Government formation

Following the election results, Siumut leader Aleqa Hammond claimed that she was "in no hurry to form a coalition" and would wait to hear the demands of the other parties.Greenland votes for change
Nunatsiaq Online, 13 March 2013 Hammond ultimately formed a government with

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 Liber ...

and the

Inuit Party The Inuit Party ( kl, Partii Inuit, ) was a separatist party in Greenland, formed by dissidents from the then-governing Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA). The party was opposed to the so-called big-scale law, and wanted a referendum on the law. Mette Lynge ...

. Siumut took six of the eight cabinet posts, with Solidarity taking the Health and Infrastructure portfolio and the Inuit Party taking the Environment portfolio.

References

2013 elections in North America 2013 parliamentary 2013 in Greenland March 2013 events in North America {{NorthAm-election-stub