NUUK, Greenland — Greenland went to the polls Tuesday after an election campaign focused on a disputed mining project in the autonomous Danish territory, as the Arctic island confronts the impact of global warming.
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Snow fell over the capital Nuuk as voters queued at polling stations, with roughly 40,000 people eligible to vote in the legislative elections.
Greenland’s two main parties are divided on whether to authorise a controversial giant rare earth and uranium mining project, which is currently the subject of public hearings.
Supporters, including the ruling social democratic Siumut party, say the mine would yield an economic windfall. Opponents, such as the opposition left-green IA party, argue it could harm the vast island’s unspoiled environment.
“I’m voting for a party that says no to uranium,” 40-year-old Henrik Jensen told AFP as he left his polling station.
Greenland’s geostrategic location and massive mineral reserves have raised international interest, as evidenced by former US president Donald Trump’s swiftly rebuffed offer to buy it in 2019.
The election campaign for parliament’s 31 seats has also centered on fishing, the main driver of Greenland’s economy.
And at a time when young Greenlanders are reconnecting with their Inuit roots and questioning their Danish colonial heritage, social issues and cultural identity have also been part of the debate.
Polling stations were due to close at 2200 GMT, with final results expected early Wednesday.
Uranium-mining moratorium?
IA led in the latest opinion polls with around 36 percent of voter support, with Siumut, which has been in power almost uninterrupted since Greenland gained autonomy in 1979, on 23 percent.
Experts have warned that the outcome is nevertheless uncertain.
Opinion polls “often put IA way too high in the polls,” University of Greenland political scientist Rasmus Leander Nielsen told AFP.
“A third of voters don’t make up their minds until the last minute.”
Nor was it likely that either of the two biggest parties would win a majority: the most likely scenario, he said, was “that IA forms a coalition with one or two smaller parties.”
IA chairman Mute Egede told AFP that “it’s up to the voters now.”
“If they choose us we are ready to start working from day one to build a coalition that can govern the country for the next four years,” Egede said.
IA has called for a moratorium on uranium mining, which would effectively put a halt to the mining project.
The Kuannersuit deposit, in the island’s south, is considered one of the world’s richest in uranium and rare earth minerals -— a group of 17 metals used as components in everything from smartphones to electric cars and weapons.
A poll published Monday by newspaper Sermitsiaq showed that 63 percent of respondents were against the mining project, although only 29 percent were against mining in general.
Local authorities have to give the green light before Australian group Greenland Mining can get an operating license.
Dreams of independence
Siumut party leader Erik Jensen has said the mine would be “hugely important for Greenland’s economy,” helping diversify revenues.
That is crucial if the island wants to gain full independence from Copenhagen someday.
Denmark, which is not opposed to Nuuk’s independence, gives the island annual subsidies of around 526 million euros, accounting for about a third of its budget.
Greenland plans to grow its economy by developing its fishing, mining, and tourism sectors, as well as agriculture in the southern part of the island which is ice-free year-round.
For Cambridge University Arctic specialist Marc Jacobsen, keeping the option of large-scale mining open is the reason why Greenland has not signed the Paris climate accord.
The treaty lets states decide their own measures to meet the common goal of keeping global warming under two degrees Celsius.
“Signing the Paris Agreement would not allow them to develop any big mining project,” Jacobsen noted
And yet the Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet since the 1990s, dramatically affecting the traditional way of life for Inuits, who make up more than 90 percent of Greenland.
IA has vowed to sign the Paris Agreement if it comes to power.
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