The left- wing party Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the people, IA) has won the Greenlands parliamentary elections with the support of 43.7% of voters. The ruling party for the last 30 years, the Social Democratic party (Siumut), received 26.5 % of the total vote. The democratic party(demokraatit) received 12.7% of the popular vote and the feeling of community(Atassut) came in fourth with 10.9%
IA will hold 14 of 31 seats within the newly elected parliament and will still need the support within some of the smaller parties to form a coalition government and receive majority support within the parliament.
IA leader Kuupik Kleist told supporters that "Greenland deserved this, we can lead this country forward, into a new era" in a celebration ceremony in Nuuk when the outcome of the election became apparent
Political observers in Greenland believe that this shift can traced to a series of financial scandals involving leading members of the governing Social Democratic Siumut Party. The outcomes of the elections can be said to reveal that the people of Greenland say "no" to these practices and have lost faith in the Siumut party to lead the nation forward in these interesting times. Following the outcome of the elections out-going premier Hans Enoksen, party leader for the past eight years, has resigned as the leader of Siumut and will be replaced by Alega Hammond.
IA will be the first party to govern in Greenland under the newly expanded home-rule agreement, which was approved by popular vote in November 2008. The newly approved home-rule agreement will give the Greenlandic government increased control over their natural resources and allow it to take greater charge of justice and legal affairs and will make the political development of Greenland all the more interesting.
11.06 News uppdate: Agreement reached for new coalition agreement.
The new IA coalition partners are Demokraatit and KP, giving the IA coalition a majority of 19 seats in parliament, against the 12 opposition members made up of Siumut and Atassut MPs.