Results of candidates with African or Asian (AA) background at the 2001 municipal elections in Copenhagen

1. Election system

"On the ballot paper are names of the parties and individuals for whom you can vote.You can vote either for a party or a person.You vote by marking an X next to the party or person of your choice." (...) "You may mark only one X on the ballot paper. If you mark more than one or write any comments, your ballot paper will be considered invalid. If by mistake you write something wrong or tear your ballot paper, you can get another one." The Municipality of Copenhagen, About the Municipal Election on Tuesday, November 20th 2001, Kommunevalg 2001 16/10/01

There should also be noted that, unlike in the French municipal electoral system for instance, it is not compulsory in Denmark to have a complete candidates list, there was for instance in 2001 at least one one-candidate list in Copenhagen (Justice Party), and several lists for national parties were also not complete. This would be politically unthinkable in Belgium for instance: whereas it is also possible to present an incomplete list, every Belgian national party either has a full list, or takes part into a larger local list, with candidates for every seat. Only local lists or extremist parties can't succeed to present complete lists. This meets also an electoralist function as every candidate makes his own independent campaign, hoping to get enough votes to topple better placed candidates, or trying to prevent less well placed candidates to topple him...

corrections by Oleg Stig Andersen (Dec. 13, 2001):

A list can have anywhere from 1 to the complete number of councillors (in Copenhagen 55) candidates. One-man lists are not seldom, two- and three-man lists quite widespread.

A list can be prioritized (All the list votes goes to candidates in listed order. You can only jump the list order if you get sufficient personal votes for a mandate on your own).

Or a list can be "egal", i. e only the number of personal votes decides who is elected, since the list vote distributed accordingly. In this case the candidates compete with each others for personal votes. This is by far the most widespread.

The lists can (and most often do) enter into alliances. This means that the votes a list gets MORE than it needs for a mandate can be transferred to another list in the alliance. These election alliances may criscross the political spectrum. They are local, they may, and do, differ from municipality to municipaliity and from election to election. In general, the electorate is not much aware of the election alliances.

 

2. Participation

One must keep in mind that in 2001 there was an exceptionally higher turnout at the municipal elections (79.5%) than in 1997 (58%) and 1993 (59,8%), due to the simultaneity with the legislative elections, this explains why some parties got far more votes than in 1997 but less seats.

 

3. Overall results

% 1997

% 2001

 seats 93

seats 97

seats 01

Social Democratic Party

29,4

26,9

18

17

16

Socialist People's Party

14,1

14,9

10

8

9

Unity List - The Red-Green

9,7

8,1

4

7

5

Danish People's Party

9,9

7,7

*

6

4

Liberal Party

10,3

19,2

8

6

11

Conservative People's party

9,4

6,6

6

5

4

Radical Left***

5,2

8,5

3

3

5

Center Democrats

1,2

1,1

  

1

1

Solidarisk Alternativ - SOL

1,8

0,6

  

1

0

Fælles Kurs

2,5

1

1

1

0

TOTAL

100

  

55**

55

55

* this party is a splinter from the Fremdskridt Party (far right), which had 3 seats in 1993

** in 1993, there were also 1 seat for the Greens and 1 for an Immigrants List (Indvandrerlisten)

*** (corrections by Oleg Stig Andersen (Dec. 13, 2001): The "Radical Left" is neither radical nor left. It is a social-liberal centre party, as is the Center Democrats. The Radical Left has been the kingmaker in Danish politics since the 1930es, deciding between a centre-left or a centre-right prime minister, at times even claiming the primiership themselves. It is the most dramatic result of this year's parliament elections that the Centre lost this traditional influence. The Center Democrats even had to leave parliament, and I can't imagine they will ever return.)

 

4. results by party

The candidates with African or Asian background (including Turkey) were selected through the usual patronymic method, plus other information from Ole Stig Andersen's site Danske indvandrerpolitikere, from which I also used the vote numbers for elections prior to 1997. The country name after the candidate's name only indicates his or her origin, not his or her present status in Denmark. When possible (e.g. for candidates who also ran for the Folketing, who must have the Danish nationality), this information is added as 'Dane born in X" or 'Dane with Y background'.

  Social Democratic Party

1997: candidates, 68,091 votes, of which 20,996 list votes, 17 elected councillors

2001: 35 candidates, 82,500 votes, of which 33,850 list votes, 16 elected councillors

 

Taner Yilmaz (Turkey)

Hamid El Mousti (Dane born in Morocco)

Anna Saakwa (Ghana, first candidacy)

In 1997, there was also on this list Lubna Elahi (Pakistan), who had list nr.29 and pref. nr. 3, with 1,531 votes (7,958 in 1993 on the People's Socialists list, 2,924 in 1989 on the People's Socialists list, 628 in 1985 on an Immigrants list) and Battal Tanriverdi (Turkey), list nr.36 and pref. nr. 19 (not elected), with 427 votes (649 in 1993, elected, 401 in 1989, elected). This time, Lubna Elahi, who had decided before the elections to sit as an independent council member, led a "Fri Dialog" list with two other AA candidates, who got 348 votes in total. For the first time since 1989, she wasn't elected at the municipal council.

Radical Left (moderate Left-wing)

1997: 11,977 votes (6,682 preference votes), 3 seats

2001: 26,030 votes (13,525 list votes), 5 seats

Tanwir Ahmad (Pakistan): 1,322 votes, list nr. 18, pref. nr. 3, elected

Manu Sareen (India): 947 votes, list nr. 6, pref. nr. 4, elected

Affra I. Khallash (Jordan): 255 votes, list nr. 16, pref. nr. 8, not elected

In 1997, there were 17 candidates on the Radical Party list, of whom the only one with AA background was a Dane with Syrian-Palestinian background, Naser Khader (list nr. 3, pref. nr. 2, 2434 votes), who entered the Folketing at the 2001 legislative election.

  People's Conservative Party

1997: total votes 21,843 , list votes 9,856 , 5 seats

2001: total votes 20,257 , list votes 11,516 , 4 seats

(Lone Skov Al Awssi: 345 votes, list nr. 7, pref. nr. 5, not elected - she's the Danish wife of an Iraqi immigrant)

Mohammad Rafiq: 233 votes, list nr. 14, pref. nr. 8, not elected

Centre Democratic Party (CD)

In 2001, A. Benhaddou (born in Morocco), who will still be the only municipal councillor for this small centrist party, had got the first place on the list, wheras in 1997 he was only 5th, but got the only seat with 322 votes, the best personal score of the 20 candidates. In 2001, he got 504 personal votes, the best personal score of the 10 candidates. He wasn't candidate at all in 1989 and 1993, but in 1985 he was candidate on an immigrants list

In 1997 (2001), there were 1248 (1027) preference votes, 44.8% (30.9%) of the total, and 1540 (2300) list votes for the CD list.

  Fri Dialog list (0 seat)

Lubna Elahi (Pakistan)

269

Khalid Alsubeihi (Lebanon)

16

Sadiq Al-Fatlawi (Iraq)

6

Listestemmer

57

I alt stemmer

348

Justice Party (0 seat)

Abdi Omar Warmoge (Somalia)

475

Listestemmer

77

I alt stemmer

552

 

Hvem blev valgt?

Offentliggjort d. 23. november 2001 kl. 00.34

Følgende kandidater blev valgt til Københavns Borgerrepræsentation

A, Socialdemokratiet 16 mandater:
Jens Kramer Mikkelsen (27.417 personlige stemmer)
Winnie Larsen-Jensen (2.471personlige stemmer)
Jette Bergenholz Bautrup (2.176 personlige stemmer)
Karen A. Hækkerup (2.148 personlige stemmer)
Jacob Hougaard (2.108 personlige stemmer)
Finn Rudaizky (1.519 personlige stemmer)
Taner Yilmaz (1.234 personlige stemmer)
Hamid El Mousti (1.118 personlige stemmer)
Lars Engberg (938 personlige stemmer)
Mona Heiberg (715 personlige stemmer)
Thor Grønlykke (704 personlige stemmer)
Anna Saakwa (569 personlige stemmer)
Joan Jensen (549 personlige stemmer)
Johs. Nymark (514 personlige stemmer)
Winnie Berndtson (446 personlige stemmer)
Jesper Christensen (361 personlige stemmer)

B, Det Radikale Venstre 5 mandater:
Klaus Bondam (4.619 personlige stemmer)
Inger Marie Bruun-Vierø (2.767 personlige stemmer)
Tanwir Ahmad (1.322 personlige stemmer)
Manu Sareen (947 personlige stemmer)
Monica Thon (699 personlige stemmer)

C, Det Konservative Folkeparti 4 mandater:
Mogens Lønborg (2.684 personlige stemmer)
Helle Sjelle (1.727 personlige stemmer)
Majbritt Mamsen (910 personlige stemmer)
Ole Hentzen (474 personlige stemmer)

D, Centrum-Demokraterne 1 mandat:
A. Benhaddou (504 personlige stemmer)

F, Socialistisk Folkeparti 9 mandater:
Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard (8.243 personlige stemmer)
Charlotte Wieth-Klitgaard (3.130 personlige stemmer + 1.432 tillagte listestemmer)
Marlene Krogh (1.223 personlige stemmer + 3.339 tillagte listestemmer)
Jens Johansen (355 personlige stemmer + 4.207 tillagte listestemmer)
Trine Schaltz (677 personlige stemmer + 3.885 tillagte listestemmer)
Sven Milthers (241 personlige stemmer + 4.321 tillagte listestemmer)
Frank Hedegaard (689 personlige stemmer + 3.873 tillagte listestemmer)
Hellen Hedemann (222 personlige stemmer + 4.340 tillagte listestemmer)
Bjarne Fey (291 personlige stemmer + 1.840 tillagte listestemmer)

O, Dansk Folkeparti 4 mandater:
Peter Skaarup (8.289 personlige stemmer)
Louise Frevert (2.887 personlige stemmer + 1.816 tillagte listestemmer)
Carl Christian Ebbesen (98 personlige stemmer + 4.605 tillagte listestemmer)
Karin Storgaard (544 personlige stemmer + 4.159 tillagte listestemmer)

V, Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti 11 mandater:
Søren Pind (22.107 personlige stemmer)
Martin Geertsen (2.051personlige stemmer)
Heidi Wang (1.437 personlige stemmer)
Karin Nørgaard 1.143 personlige stemmer)
Wallait Kahn (930 personlige stemmer)
Leslie Arentoft (852 personlige stemmer)
Pia Allerslev (851 personlige stemmer)
Jesper Schou Hansen (608 personlige stemmer)
Bente Frost (595 personlige stemmer)
Michael Rosenmark (299 personlige stemmer)
Lise Helweg (259 personlige stemmer)


Ø, Enhedslisten - De Rød-Grønne 5 mandater:
Per Bregengaard (3.275 personlige stemmer + 881 tillagte listestemmer)
Bente Møller (1.091 personlige stemmer + 3.065 tillagte listestemmer)
Mikkel Warming (792 personlige stemmer + 3.364 tillagte listestemmer)
Rikke Fog-Møller (658 personlige stemmer + 3.498 tillagte listestemmer)
Jens Kjær Christensen (475 personlige stemmre + 3.681 tillagte listestemmer)