The Sami Parliament (Sametinget) in Northern Norway won’t be going through any major leadership changes, after Norske Samers Riksforbund (NSR) remained its biggest party after last week’s election. Its leader, Silje Karine Muotka, will remain Sami president.
“I’m so glad now,” exclaimed NSR’s Muotka exclaimed when an election result was finally available several days after the election itself last week. It took lots of time to count up all the votes, since the important municipality of Tromsø in Northern Norway didn’t even start counting the Sami Parliament’s votes until Wednesday. It was too busy until then counting votes in Norway’s general election for Parliament in Oslo.
Muotka has become a familiar face nationwide because of all the national issues that involve the Sami, including the demonstrations in Oslo after the government failed to follow a Supreme Court order to dismantle controversial wind turbines that can disturb the Samis’ grazing reindeer herds. Muotka has also been the public voice for the Sami on several other major issues, including the electrification of Equinor’s gas processing plant on the island of Melkøya and how the Sami were forced to “become more Norwegian” for decades and many never became fluent in samisk and lost much of their cultural heritage.
NSR ended up with its best election result since 1993, with 37.9 percent of the votes and 18 seats in the Sami Parliament in Karasjok, Finnmark County. NSR’s and Muotka’s strongest rival was the party Nordkalottfolket (NKF) and its leader, Vibeke Larsen, who’s among Sami who don’t speak samisk. Larsen conceded the election just before the weekend, though, after NKF won 31.9 percent of the vote, and formally congratulated Muotka and NSR on their victory. The third-largest party in the new Sametinget for the next four years will be Labour, with 11.5 percent of the vote.
Fully 74.1 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the Sami election, a turnout nearly as high as in Norway’s general election. Many Norwegians with Sami background have become more engaged in Sami issues, and they’ve expanded as well. “Sami interests extend well beyond just reindeer operations,” Larsen told state broadcaster NRK before the election.
The Sami Parliament has sued the state once again, now in an effort to overturn the national government’s decision to electrify Melkøya. The Sami and many other residents of Northern Norway fear that will demand so much electricity that more turbines or hydroelectric energy will be necessary and that electricity bills will rise. Mining and the dumping of mine tailings into local fjords have also enraged many, both Sami and other environmentalists, as have developments that threaten the vast Northern Norwegian nature and landscapes.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
