After holding its General Elections on May 25, Suriname’s new President Dr Jennifer Geerlings-Simons of the National Democratic Party (NDP) was finally elected yesterday in its two-phase electoral system. The elections would elect members of the national Assembly that would then proceed a month later to elect the president. Suriname’s smaller population of 628,886, and 383,333 registered voters, is even more ethnically diverse than ours but its early commitment to coalition governments – aside from its detour into a military dictatorship under Desi Bouterse – has tempered inter-ethnic hostilities. This was the first elections in which the constituency system was abolished because of the discrepancy between votes and seats obtained. The entire country was treated as a single constituency with seats allocated in proportion to votes obtained.
The ethnic groups of Suriname are the East Indians (called Hindustanis) – 27.4%; Maroons (descendants of runaway enslaved Africans) – 21.7%; Creole (African-Dutch Mixed) 15.7%; Javanese -13.7%; Mixed (Misc) 13.4%; Indigenous 3.8%; Chinese 1.3% and others 2.8%. Historically the political parties were ethnically based with the elite Creole NDP initially forming the government and the Indian based VHP the coalescing opposition. They have since both made determined efforts to broaden their representations.
Fourteen parties contested the elections for the 51-seat National Assembly that would then elect the president by a two-thirds majority. The official results, validated by the Independent Electoral Bureau, showed that the National Democratic Party (NDP) winning 18 seats, narrowly ahead of the ruling Progressive Reform Party (VHP), which secured 17. That the Creole NDP received 34% of the votes and the Indian-based VHP 32% showed that they have succeeded in a small way to move towards multi-ethnic voting, since the Mixed voters usually voted with the Creoles. Interestingly, the NDP’s base was most successfully broadened by Desi Bouterse who was convicted of drug trafficking and the murder of several civil society representatives who spoke out against his regime.
The Javanese based Pertjajah Luhur (PL) and the Maroon based General Liberation and Development Party (ABOP) have maintained their ethnic representative focus, but obtaining respectively 2 and 6 seats from 3.37% and 11.83% of the votes it appears that their base has dissipated somewhat. ABOP is headed by Ronnie Brunswijk, the former guerrilla leader who was convicted of drug trafficking. The remaining seats went to several smaller parties: National Party of Suriname (NPS) (6), Alternative 2020 (A20) (1), and Brotherhood and Unity in Politics -BEP (1). Clearly no party reached the 26-seat majority needed to govern alone, forcing their customary horse-trading negotiations to form a government and elect a president. Two days after the very peaceful elections, the NDP confirmed a coalition agreement with five of the smaller parties – ABOP, NPS, PL, A20 and the BEP, forming a 34-seat bloc, enough to secure a two-thirds majority in the 51 member National Assembly.
With oil from its offshore oil reserves scheduled to start flowing in 2028, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons’ NDP was able to increase its share of the votes and its attractiveness of its coalition offer by making very expansive promises on social spending and expansion of the traditional clientism of Surinamese governments. With his sobering experience in government, Santokhi had proffered a much more realistic program and has now gracefully accepted his role as Opposition Leader.
For us in Guyana, there are still several outstanding issues that we will have to ensure remain on the table in dealing with the new government. First and foremost is the New River Triangle, where, against history, geography and international law, every Suriname government insists belongs to them. Then there is the vexed issue of licenses for Guyanese fishermen to fish in the Corentyne, which belongs to Suriname. Promises continue to be made which are never kept, while our fishermen are in constant fear of being apprehended and punished.
In the meantime, we have agreed to have a bridge built across the aforementioned Suriname-owned Corentyne River, which will benefit Suriname much more than Guyana. The execution of the agreement should be made contingent on the two issues being settled in our favour.
