Denmark votes in close election, outgoing PM tipped to win

Polling stations close at 8pm, with exit polls expected to be published just after. Read more at straitstimes.com.

COPENHAGEN - Danes began voting on March 24 in general elections, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seen as the favourite after standing up to US President Donald Trump over Greenland.

The latest polls give the left-wing bloc, for which Ms Frederiksen is the self-proclaimed candidate, a nine-seat lead over the right-wing bloc, but neither side is projected to win a majority of the 179 seats in Denmark’s Parliament, the Folketing.

Ms Frederiksen, a Social Democrat who has been in office since 2019, has been praised for her leadership after fending off Mr Trump’s repeated demands to annex Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory he claims the United States needs for national security reasons.

At Copenhagen’s City Hall, voters, many on their way to work, lined up under a cloudy sky to cast their ballots as polls opened at 8am (3pm Singapore time).

“The alternatives (to Mette Frederiksen) are worse,” 24-year-old student Freja Strandlod told AFP just after casting her vote in central Copenhagen.

“People may not really like her, but they see her as the right leader,” Ms Elisabet Svane, political analyst at Danish newspaper Politiken, told AFP.