The News
As Suriname gears up for parliamentary elections next year, the opposition is dealing with the loss of its top leader, who fled the country to escape imprisonment on murder charges.
In 2020, President Chan Santokhi took power after winning in an upset with the Progressive Reform Party (VHP). Santokhi, nicknamed “The Sheriff,” is a former police commissioner who served as Minister of Justice and developed a reputation as a crusader against crime. As a minister, Santokhi carried out the prosecution of Desi Bouterse, Suriname’s authoritarian leader during the 1980s, charging him with a massacre of dissidents infamously known as the December Murders.
Bouterse was eventually found guilty of the crimes in 2019, but not before winning the presidency and serving two terms in office with his New Democratic Party (NDP). Santokhi’s win charged past skepticism of an opposition breakthrough, and he was able to secure the presidency through an alliance with a party led by Ronnie Brunswijk, a former guerilla leader who fought against Bouterse’s junta. Brunswijk, like Bouterse, is also a convicted drug trafficker. He owns his own soccer team — and has played for it too.
Stripped of his legal immunity, years of failed appeals were finally set to culminate last December in Bouterse being sent to prison for the massacre. But Bouterse ignored the sentencing, fled authorities and is currently considered a fugitive from justice.
As police continue to search for Bouterse, the country is gearing up for legislative elections next year. A relative lack of polling means the situation is uncertain, but an NDP managing the political fallout of its leader’s fugitive status and a government that has faced serious unrest will compete in another clear battle for the soul of the country.
While Bouterse won’t be running for his own party, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, the former National Assembly chair and his longtime ally, is carrying the NDP banner in his stead. A victory for Bouterse’s party in 2025 could provide useful political cover for the ex-dictator, who only surrendered control of the party in July.
“Mr. Bouterse is not there,” Geerlings-Simons was quoted telling supporters. “The party must move on. Because if you let the party collapse, then he has given his life to the party for nothing. Then it was all for nothing.”
Know More
Within the government, there has been intrigue as well. Brunswijk aims to challenge Santokhi, looking to upgrade from the vice presidency to the presidency. One smaller former coalition partner, the NPS, broke off from Santokhi’s government citing high inflation and rising poverty.
For Santokhi, the situation could be truly dire. A poll taken in 2023 gave the president just a 3% approval rating, after a highly unpopular rollback of fuel and other subsidies.
Santokhi’s harsh reforms, driven by an IMF program, have won him praise from international investors. But as the president’s staggeringly low approval indicates, the measures have angered the population, destabilizing Suriname’s political situation — and potentially providing a path for Bouterse’s party to return to power.
Suriname is expecting a major influx of revenue from recently-discovered oil reserves, seen by the public as a potential economic lifeline. Beyond the environmental concerns, however, Suriname has seen similar promises of economic growth through oil exploration for a decade now, and “the people are still waiting.”
Notable
A “pro-Bitcoin” candidate, Maya Parbhoe, is also running with a longshot bid in the election.