COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A pro-business party that promised to champion Greenland’s nascent mining industry almost doubled its support in elections, results showed on Wednesday, raising the prospect of a shift in the coalition government.
The centrist Demokraterne party took nearly 20 percent of the vote and became the third biggest group after it won over supporters from the two main parties in the last coalition, up from 11.8 percent four years earlier.
Greenland’s ruling center-left Siumut party, led by prime minister Kim Kielsen, remained the biggest party, but with a much smaller share – 27 percent down from 34 percent. The former police officer was expected to start coalition talks soon.
“I would think the next government will be more pro-business than what we’ve had in the last few years,” said Mikaa Mered, an Arctic expert and professor at the Ileri institute in Paris. Dog sleds had to ferry voting papers to polling stations across the sparely populated country for Tuesday’s vote.
Surveys suggested that the 40,769 eligible voters were most interested in improving poor infrastructure and boosting an economy that depends on fishing and annual grants from Denmark.
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