The largest and most resource-rich country of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) votes for a new government on September 1 in the latest of a string of elections in the 15-member bloc this year.
President Irfaan Ali used the opportunity of his address late Sunday at celebrations marking 59 years of independence from Britain to announce the date and indicate that parliament will soon be dissolved to make way for the latest general elections in the bloc.
The announcement came just as electoral authorities in neighboring Suriname were counting the votes from polls held in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean nation earlier in the day, on Sunday. Preliminary results have so far indicated that the multiracial National Democratic Party (NDP) might well be the largest single party in the country, with 18 of the 51 seats, narrowly sneaking ahead of the Hindustani-dominated VHP party of President Chan Santokhi with 17. Final results are expected later in the week, but it is clear that negotiations for a multiparty coalition will have to begin in earnest among the major parties because 26 seats are needed to form a government and 34, or two-thirds, to begin the process of choosing a president.
The country has had a history of coalition governments since independence from the Netherlands in 1975, with the last one having four representing Indo and Afro Surinamese, one traditionally supported by the urban middle class, and the fourth of Maroons, descendants of runaway slaves in the colonial era. Two had abandoned the grouping before the elections, citing rampant and widespread corruption, nepotism, rising inflation, and other problems.
As electoral officials prepare for the final tally, leaders of the NDP and the VHP have both begun to signal a willingness to talk coalition formation, because much is at stake. In early 2028, Suriname will begin production of offshore oil that is likely to bring in billions to the country of just over 600,000 from the prolific Guyana-Suriname basin. Neighboring Guyana earns nearly $9 million per day from oil production, which is expected to almost double with additional oil fields coming on stream in the near two years, taking production to 1 million barrels from around 650,000 daily currently.
“We asked for a mandate, and this is the mandate that the people have given,” Santokhi told reporters. “We must now continue with this. It is up to us to have discussions with other political parties on this basis. The election campaign is over, the battle has been fought. Now we, as leaders, have to see what is good for the country. That is what it is all about now.”
For its part, the NDP, which lost the 2020 elections to a VHP-led grouping, saying no administration will run the country with it on the political and governmental sidelines this time.
The NDP had had two terms in office from 2010, but leader Jenny Geerlings-Simons said the party is happy with its progress, even though 18 seats represent a gain of only two seats from 2020, while the VHP has dropped three or just over 15,000 votes. She said party leadership is already working on what happens in the coming days, meaning coalition formation. If all goes well, Geerlings-Simons could also become the country’s first head of government when the process of electing a leader begins in earnest in the coming days. If she does, she will join Mia Mottley of Barbados, Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad, and Cora Richardson-Hodge of Anguilla, all attorneys at law.
“We are on the right track,” said the NDP leader and former parliamentary speaker. “There are still a few thousand votes to be counted and we hope that it will continue in our favor, but we will calmly wait for the result. We are happy, because we know how this result came about, but we are where we are now and we will continue from there. This is the first step — and believe me, we are already working on it.”
Meanwhile in Guyana, like Suriname, whichever party runs the government after September will enjoy billions in oil revenues going forward, since less than 10% of the prolific basin has been explored so far.
In 2025 to date, elections have been held in Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Belize, Curaçao, Trinidad, and Suriname, while Jamaica, St. Vincent, and Guyana are next on this electoral conveyor belt of the year.