Paramaribo – Suriname’s electoral authorities announced preliminary results from the May 25 elections which shows the opposition parties won.
The government of Desi Bouterse was accused of obstructing efforts to seat a new legislature in the small South American nation. Previously, result were announced immediately, but on Thursday night just an hour before the government imposed sweeping limits on public activity to fight a flareup of COVID-19.
Four opposition parties have formed a coalition to elect the next president in August, though they remain one vote short of the 34 needed for a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, which is required to elect the president.
The parties issued a statement accusing the government of obstructionism, noting that delays in the vote counting process are pushing it toward the June 24 deadline set by law for seating the new legislature.
The United Reform Party leapfrogged past Bouterse’s National Democratic Party, winning 20 seats, up from nine, while the government party fell from 26 to 16.
The Reform Party’s chief, former police officer Chandrikapersad ‘Chan’ Santokhi, is expected to become the next president.
Bouterse, who won democratic elections a decade ago, has suffered from an economic crisis and from a 2019 conviction for murder involving political opponents of the military government he led from 1980 to 1987. A Dutch court also has convicted him in absentia of drug trafficking, which he denies.
He has remained free in part because he holds the presidency and he is appealing the murder conviction.
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