Greenland holds national election amid Trump's calls to join the US
President Donald Trump's repeated calls for Greenland to join the United States loomed large over the nation's parliamentary election on Tuesday.
Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark, has approximately 41,000 registered voters. Its last election was held in 2021.
Polls closed on Tuesday evening, according to the Associated Press. Unofficial results may be released earlier, but certification of the vote won't come for weeks, according to the outlet.
A vote that held little global significance in the past is now being watched around the world. Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede called Tuesday's election a "fateful choice" for the Arctic region, as it has become somewhat of a battleground for world powers including Europe, Russia and the U.S.
Opinion polls show most Greenlanders favor independence over Danish or American rule, according to AP.
The election was comprised of six political parties vying for control of Greenland's parliament, known as the Inatsisartut. Among those parties, 31 lawmakers will be elected to leadership Tuesday.
The world's largest island has been under Danish rule for over 300 years, but it gained autonomous leadership in 1979. Denmark still controls its foreign and defense policies, however.
As Trump makes his desire to control Greenland clear, the nation has expressed an interest in gaining independence from Denmark. That movement has been led by Egede and the ruling party, the democratic socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit.
"Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation -- which we can describe as the shackles of colonialism -- and move forward," Egede said while addressing the nation in January.
Since the beginning of his second term in the White House, Trump has repeatedly called for the annexation of Greenland and negotiations with Denmark -- which the country has denied.
"We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it," Trump said during his joint address to Congress last week. "We need it really for international world security, and I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it," he said.
In January, Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, visited Nuuk, Greenland, in pursuit of future negotiations. He took to X at the time, writing, "MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!"
While independence from Denmark is not directly being voted on during Tuesday's election, the outcome of the parliamentary vote could be defining for Greenland's future.
A recent poll of Greenland residents conducted by the Danish newspaper Berlingske and Greenland's outlet Sermitsiaq found that 85% of respondents did not wish to join the U.S.
Additionally, 56% of those polled said they would vote for independence from Denmark if a referendum were to be held.
