General elections were held in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

on 4 April 1979, the first election to the new

Inatsisartut The Inatsisartut (, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Greenland in English, is the unicameral parliament (legislative branch) of Greenland, an autonomous territoryMultiple sources: * * * in the Danish Realm. Established in 1979, the parli ...

after the introduction of

home rule Home rule is the government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governan ...

. The result was a victory for the separatist and left wing

Siumut Siumut (SIU, ; ; ) 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 ...

, which won 13 of the 21 seats in the

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, over the unionist and moderate

Atassut Atassut (, 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 Venstre. History Atassut was established in late 1976 a ...

.Greenland
Parties and Elections The difference in seats won became relatively large because of the use of

first past the post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

in five constituencies in northern and eastern Greenland, which were all won by Siumut, while the two parties split the 16 seats in the multi member constituencies in Western Greenland evenly. As a result of the election

Jonathan Motzfeldt Jonathan Jakob Jørgen Otto Motzfeldt (25 September 1938 – 28 October 2010) was a Greenlandic priest and politician. He is considered one of the leading figures in the establishment of Greenland Home Rule.

from Siumut became the first head of government in Greenland. No party has won a majority of seats in the Inatsisartut since.

Results

References

{{Greenlandic elections Elections in Greenland

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...