Politics of Greenland

Politics of Greenland Political parties in Greenland Elections in Greenland

Country name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Greenland
local long form: none
local short form: Kalaallit Nunaat (meaning Land of the Greenlanders in Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic Inuit language)

Data code: GL

Dependency status: part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark since 1979

Government type: parliamentary democracy within a Constitutional monarchy

Capital: Nuuk (Danish: Godthåb)

Administrative divisions: 3 districts (landsdele); Avannaa (Danish: Nordgrønland), Tunu (Danish: Østgrønland), Kitaa (Danish: Vestgrønland)

Independence: none (part of the Kingdom of Denmark; self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark since 1979)

National holiday: Longest day of the year, 21 June

Constitution: 5 June 1953 (Danish constitution)

Legal system: Danish

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Contents

1 Executive branch 2 Legislative branch 3 Judicial branch 4 Political parties and leaders 5 International organization participation 6 Diplomatic representations 7 Flag description

Executive branch

Chief of state: Queen Margaret II of Denmark (since 14 January 1972), represented by High Commissioner Gunnar Martens (since 1995)

Head of government: Prime Minister Hans Enoksen (since 14 December 2002)

Cabinet: Landsstyre is formed from the Parliament on the basis of the strength of parties

Elections: The monarch is hereditary; high commissioner appointed by the monarch; prime minister is elected by Parliament (usually the leader of the majority party); election last held 3 December 2002 (next to be held in December 2006)

Legislative branch

Unicameral Parliament or Landsting (31 seats; members are elected by popular vote on the basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms). The last elections were held 3 December 2002 (next to be held by NA December 2006). For recent election results, see below.

Two representatives were elected to the Danish Parliament or Folketing on 20 November 2001 (next to be held no later than November 2005); percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - Siumut 1, Inuit Ataqatigiit 1

Judicial branch

High Court or Landsret.

Political parties and leaders

Party	Vote ¹	Seats ²	Leader	Description ³
Siumut	28.7%	10	Hans Enoksen	Forward Party, a social democratic party advocating more distinct Greenlandic identity and greater autonomy from Denmark
Inuit Ataqatigiit	25.5%	8	Josef Motzfeldt	Eskimo Brotherhood, a leftist party favoring complete independence from Denmark rather than home rule
Atassut Party	20.4%	7	Augusta Salling	Solidarity, a conservative party favoring continuing close relations with Denmark
Demokratiit	15.6%	5	Per Berthelsen
Katusseqatigiit	5.3%	1	n/a	Candidate List, an independent right-of-center party with no official platform
Akulliit Party	n/a	0	Bjarne Kreutzmann
Issituup	n/a	0	Nicolai Heinrich	Polar Party

Notes

• ¹ Percentage of votes at elections for Landsting on 3 December 2002
• ² Seats in Landsting (2002-2006)
• ³ Originally from the CIA World Factbook

International organization participation

Nordic Council, Nordic Investment Bank

Diplomatic representations

Diplomatic representation in the US: none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Diplomatic representation from the US: none (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)

Flag description

two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a large disk slightly to the hoist side of center - the top half of the disk is red, the bottom half is white (see Greenlandic national flag)

See also : Greenland