After the May 25 general elections in the Caribbean Community nation of Suriname, six political parties came together to form a new government coalition, ensuring the previous government was sent to the opposition benches after a single five-year term.
In coming together, the six have mustered enough votes and seats to gain a two-thirds or 34 of the 51 assembly seats, allowing it to soon elect a president and vice president without the help of any other political outfit.
But as the multiparty, multiracial coalition waits on final results and a parliamentary sitting to formally choose the two top positions, there are widespread allegations that the outgoing VHP-led administration is offering financial inducements for incoming lawmakers from the coalition to ditch this group and help it remain in government.
The six-party group, led by the National Democratic Party (NDP) of late former military strongman and two-time coup maker Desi Bouterse, won a bloc of 18 seats compared to 17 for the Indo-dominated VHP, leading by over 6,000 votes. The difference this time, however, is that none of the parties which won seats wants to coalesce with the VHP, as was the case in 2020 when it had three other partners, citing alleged widespread corruption, the sharing of wealth mostly between friends and family, an increase in inflation, and a general reduction in the quality of life in the country.
This week, for example, Bronto Somohardjo, the leader of the Javanese-supported Pertjajah Luhur party, says offers of bribes to form a coalition with the VHP and keep it in power abound at the moment.
“I won’t say what they offered, but you really fell off your chair,” he told local television station D-TV Express. “But now the stakes are high. Do you love your country enough or do you love your pocket? Because amounts of 1 million dollars, 2 million dollars, 3 million dollars, 4 million dollars and 5 million dollars are offered. But if you commit treason, people know immediately that it is you, 100,000%,” he said, confirming reports about offers to cross the floor.
Additionally, NDP Leader and former assembly speaker Jennifer Simons says she is also aware of inducement efforts to maintain the political status quo.
“We get a lot of news about bribery. In fact, we have information that people are being offered a lot of money. And that’s a shame, because we were talking about corruption. This is a serious form of corruption when you buy people’s votes. But yes, it is said and I don’t have it in black and white. So, we hope it is not true,” Simons said in the program Bakana Tori.
For those interested in political power, much is at stake going forward as the country of about 600,000 is poised to rake in hundreds of millions in cash from oil and gas production starting in 2028.
French oil giant Total Energies and APA Corporation of the U.S. are leading efforts to kickstart production in three years while drilling exploratory and appraisal wells on the border with Guyana which has been producing oil since 2019 following discoveries in 2015. Whichever party or coalition group is in power when oil begins to gush from the seabed would have large amounts of money to spend and improve life in the country.
Currently, the country is only now completing a harsh IMF slew of austerity measures that had, among other demands, restricted wage increases, tinkered with interest rates and pushed the local dollar from under US$10-1 in 2020 to over 40-1 today, sending import prices exponentially.
Outgoing President Chan Santokhi has blamed the harshness of the fund programs for the departure of thousands of voters from the VHP, saying it was unfortunate but necessary to correct economic abnormalities from the previous government. He thinks the party had lost at least three seats because of the measures.
“If it had been a success, the people would have settled with us,” he said. “I want to give you another chance, together with other political parties.”