NUUK, Greenland — The polling station in Greenland’s capital closed Tuesday in a parliamentary election that will determine the leaders who will confront U.S. President Donald Trump’s effort to take control of the strategically placed Arctic country.

Huge crowds streamed into the polling station in the capital, Nuuk, throughout the day, warmed by sunny skies. Exhausted voting officials closed the polls well after the planned 8 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) to make sure everyone in line got a chance to cast their ballot.

Unofficial election results should be available in the coming hours, but they won’t be certified for weeks as paper ballots make their way to the capital from remote settlements by boat, plane and helicopter.

Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede in February called elections a bit early, saying the country needed to be united during a “serious time” that is unlike anything Greenland has ever experienced.

Greenland, a self-governing region of Denmark, straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and has rich deposits of the rare earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

Trump has been outspoken about his desire to control Greenland, telling a joint session of Congress last week that he thought the U.S. was going to get it “one way or the other.”

While the island of 56,000 people has been on a path toward independence since at least 2009, a break from Denmark isn’t on the ballot — even though it’s on everyone’s mind. Voters will instead elect 31 lawmakers who will shape the island’s future at a defining moment in history: Should Greenland declare independence?

Polls: Support for independence

The mood was festive Tuesday at the sole polling station in Greenland’s capital city, Nuuk, as election workers opened the doors to cheers at 1100 GMT.

Opinion polls show most Greenlanders favor independence. Most say they don’t dislike Americans, pointing to the good relations they have with the local Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Force Base, where U.S. military personnel have been stationed since 1951.

But Greenlanders show no sign of wanting to become Americans. Even some of Trump’s biggest fans cling to the principle that they should control their destiny: their mantra is that Greenland is open for business, but not for sale.

“The situation has changed because of Trump and because of the world,” said Doris Jensen, representative of the social democratic Siumut party who said she has always favored independence. “So we have decided in our party that we have to do (it) more quickly.”

Voter Sofia Rossen had a message for Trump: “Stop talking about Greenland. Stop,” she said in the polling station in Nuuk.

The island and the U.S. previously had a positive relationship, but that doesn’t mean they want to be part of the United States, she told The Associated Press. Greenland’s future must be decided by its people, she said.

“It is us, we are living here and we know what to do,” she said. “We are not for sale. We are not American, we won’t be Americans. We are not (Danes), but we are part of the Danish community.”

“I think most of us have been scared since the new year because of (Trump’s) interest,” Pipaluk Lynge, a member of parliament from the ruling Inuit Ataqatigiit, or United Inuit party, told The Associated Press. “So we’re really, really looking to Europe right now to see if we could establish a stronger bond with them to secure our sovereign nation.”