Kuno Fencker from Naleraq has proposed that the residence requirement for being able to vote in Greenland should be longer than six months.
As it is now, Danish citizens are granted the right to vote when they have lived in Greenland for six months.
In the resolution, Kuno Fencker has written that due to the size of the Greenlandic people, even minor changes in the composition of the population can have greater political significance than in other countries.
Naleraq believes that the rules for voting rights to Inatsisartut should reflect a certain degree of permanent attachment to Greenland.
However, the proposal does not specify how long one must have lived in Greenland to achieve that attachment. This will be up for discussion in Inatsisartut.
The proposal was first considered in the Inatsisartut on Thursday, April 30.
Withdraws the proposal
And while some parties could well see reasons to change the rules for voting rights, the Greenland Government recommended the proposal for rejection.
- The proposal states that changes in the composition of the population can have political significance. The Greenland Government notes that this is a relevant consideration, but there is neither documentation that the current system with a six-month residence requirement has created concrete problems, nor analyses showing that people with shorter residence periods have a particular impact on election results or the decisions of the Greenland Government.
- The Greenland Government therefore assesses that there is no documented need to change the existing system, says Maritha Broberg, the Greenland Government's Minister for Social Affairs, Labour Market, Families and Home Affairs, from the podium.
However, Siumut, IA and Naleraq had referred the proposal for consideration in the Law Committee. Thus, Naalakkersuisut's proposal for rejection seemed to be voted down.
But at the very end, shortly before the first reading was finished, IA chose to refer the proposal for rejection, as the tone of the debate became too harsh. This was said by Ane Hansen (IA) from the floor.
When this happened, Kuno Fencker chose to withdraw the item altogether, as there was no longer a majority to send the proposal to the committee.
