By Marvin Hokstam
PARAMARIBO--Suriname is going to the polls today, Monday, May 25, in a general election that is both decisive and divisive, but also considered the turning point for the South American country battling an economic crisis spurred on by obvious corruption. Established parties will be battling it out against millennial newcomers, to decide the way onward for the country that is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.
These are the ninth elections in Suriname since the country became independent from the Netherlands in 1975. Seventeen parties have been cleared to compete for the 51 seats in the National Assembly. The electorate is 385,000 people strong, divided into 10 voting districts. A sensational battle awaits, in which some of the lines have been drawn along race; at the same time it will also determine the fate of Desi Bouterse who faces a 20-year prison sentence for murder.
Low mark for Bouterse
Bouterse is running for the third time. He first took power in 1980, when he led a coup d’état and sacked the then government and installed military rule. He lost the democratic elections of 1987 but came back strong and won by landslides in 2010 and 2015. The president’s National Democratic Party (NDP) has held the crippling majority of 26 seats in Parliament.
People have nonetheless grown unhappy with the NDP leadership in recent years. Government has been plagued by a series of corruption scandals of late, the most angering one being the disappearance in January this year of US $100 million from the Central Bank, where not too long before that, Bank President Robert van Trikt was fired and then arrested for fraud. Van Trikt remains in pre-trial detention, but he has also implicated Finance Minister Gillmore Hoefdraad, who last week narrowly survived intentions by the Prosecutor’s Office to indict him.
Meanwhile the economy of the country is in shambles; the official exchange rate for the Suriname Dollar (SRD) now stands at SRD 7.50 to US $1 – with a street value that nears SRD 20 to US $1, whereas it was SRD 3.50 to US $1 four years ago.
In March the NDP party used its majority in Parliament to push through a “Law on the Supervision of the Foreign Currency Traffic and Foreign Exchange Businesses” that forbade any foreign currency transactions by private citizens; private businesses were ordered to turn in their foreign currency to the Central Bank. The law represented an infringement on democratic freedoms and sparked immediate protest. It was subsequently halted by a judge earlier this month.
A poll in February reported that 85 per cent of the electorate was unhappy with the economic situation; three quarters said things had worsened in comparison to a year before. The Bouterse cabinet gets a 4.6 for its performance.
This is in line with a number of anti-government protest manifestations in recent months; thousands of people took to the streets in February to demonstrate against corruption and demand that government step down.
“These are the elections during which many people are hoping for a new government,” said August Boldewijn, a university professor and public administration expert. “People no longer trust this government, because they have not kept promises and their financial management is disastrous.”
You can’t eat bridges
Bouterse, who floats along on his charisma, nonetheless remains immensely popular especially among the underprivileged, who ironically enough are the ones who suffer the most from government’s mismanagement, but are the happiest with government’s emergency food packages and other handouts. “I used to be a sceptic, but now I am sure who I am going to vote for: NDP,” said a single mother who was still happy with the food package she received from the party on Mother’s Day.
As the elections are drawing near, Bouterse has promised to build new roads with fly-overs, and finally have a train system constructed; last week he announced that government would build an ultra-modern airport that would rival any in the region. His opponents reacted with sarcasm. “For whom? Nobody has any money to travel.”
His party has also pulled out all the stops. Last week it launched the raffle of a brand-new car for any 18-year-old who would vote for the party. This was met with disgust. “They are obviously trying to keep the people happy with promises of hospitals and bridges, but that will not work. You can’t eat bridges,” said Boldewijn.
Santokhi
Bouterse’s biggest opponent is Chandrikapersad (Chan) Santokhi, leader of the VHP party, the largest party in the opposition. During the elections in 1987 – the first democratic elections after the military reign –, VHP had formed the New Front coalition with the NPS party, to force Bouterse out of leadership. A former police commissioner, Santokhi had served as a no-nonsense justice minister from 2005 to 2010 and ran as presidential candidate during both previous elections; he lost against Bouterse each time, but consistently maintained his opposition against the ruling party.
But VHP has faced difficulty in recent months, to shake the impression that it is a racist party that favours only the Hindustani community, the descendants of Indian labourers who were brought to Suriname after slavery was abolished in 1863.
During a meeting in the National Assembly on Monday, May 18, for instance, VHP parliamentarian Mahinder Jogi blatantly called Sylvana Afonsoewa (NDP) – who is of African Maroon descent –, a monkey. “Shut up, monkey,” he yelled at her, upon which he was admonished by Parliament Chair Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, but he repeated his racist outburst: “I apologise, chair, but I did not know we had monkeys in Parliament.” Geerlings-Simons then muted his mic and ordered him removed from the meeting by police.
This led to some condemnation, with opponents of VHP insisting that it was proof of what to expect if VHP won. VHP has not apologised for Jogi’s words, but there have been accusations that Afonsoewa had also called him a monkey before.
Mavericks and newcomers
Not to be disregarded is the Abop party of former guerrilla leader Ronnie Brunswijk, who can count several highly educated young people of Maroon descent, among his politicians. Brunswijk, whose party in 2010 formed the Mega Combination coalition with Bouterse’s NDP, has sworn never to work with Bouterse again. Two weeks ago, he made the remarkable accusation that Bouterse’s party would be deploying undocumented Haitians to vote for them. “Haitians, I am warning you now,” he said, threatening them specifically to stay out of his village, Moengotapu. “If they come there we will beat them with sticks,” he said. A Haitian representative called the statement divisive, dangerous, and deplorable.
Also, several parties have arisen from the midst of the anti-government protesters: Next Generation Movement with leader Xaviera Jessurun, Strei! with Maisha Neus, and the Party for Justice and Development PRO of Curtis Hofwijks, which sparked the massive demonstrations of last February.
The newcomers, all young millennials, have one thing in common: obtaining votes that belonged to NDP and thus voting Bouterse away. “These are the most spectacular elections ever in Suriname. These elections will determine whether Suriname remains a constitutional state or becomes a social communistic state. We are at the crossroads,” said Xavira Jessurun.
She told journalists that the battle was sometimes unfair. “We face the difficulty of making the electorate aware of how the electoral system works. It contains some very weirds twists and turns, and government is trying to manipulate things with all their might. But our gatherings are opening people’s eyes. People are starting to think and that gives hope.”
Prison sentence
For Bouterse a loss could mean that he is thrown in prison for his role in the December 1982 murders of 15 of his opponents. On November 29, 2019, the Military Court concluded the 12-year-old trial that brought 25 men to justice for their roles in the murders and handed a 20-year sentence to the 74-year-old president. There has since been speculation about whether a sitting president could go to prison, which makes a win on Monday even more important for him.
Coronavirus
The elections are taking place in spite of the coronavirus crisis and its restrictions; the Constitution only allows for a postponement in case of war or other extraordinary circumstances, and the corona crisis is neither. After opposition parties claimed that they were being hindered by the corona measures – they could not travel to campaign and could not hold rallies –, government announced an election protocol that parties have to follow leading to and on the day of elections. The coronavirus measures were relaxed; the curfew in most parts of the country was only in effect from 11:00pm to 5:00am and the ban on gatherings now allows meetings of up to 50 people; it previously allowed a maximum of 10. Parties have adjusted their campaign tactics accordingly: instead of rallies, they now send campaign trails of cars painted in their colours rolling through neighbourhoods with music and fanfare.
On Thursday, May 21, Bouterse announced in a televised address that the curfew would be lifted in full until Monday, and that internal flights were allowed again. “We have been working hard over the past couple of weeks to guarantee that the elections can take place. With adherence to all safety considerations, we want to give everybody the opportunity to execute their democratic right to vote,” he said.
Government has hired some 7,000 people to work for and during the elections, which include those who will be manning the polling stations on May 25. The elections are expected to have a SRD 160 million tab – approximately US $21.5 million – which is more than double the cost of the 2015 general elections. The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community CARICOM have sent election observers.
