PARAMARIBO, (Reuters) – Former Suriname dictator Desi Bouterse’s coalition won the most seats in parliamentary elections, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to name a new president, preliminary results showed yesterday.
Bouterse, who faces trial for the execution of 15 opponents during his 1982 military rule and who has a drug-trafficking conviction in the Netherlands, must negotiate with other parties to reach a deal on the ex-Dutch colony’s new leader.
Suriname, sandwiched between Guyana and French Guiana on the northern shoulder of South America, won its independence in 1975 and is now a gold and bauxite miner with a nascent petroleum industry.
Bouterse, who ruled Suriname twice after military coups, would not say whether he would seek the presidency himself after his Mega Combination coalition won 23 of the 51 seats in the country’s National Assembly in Tuesday’s election.
“One must respect the people’s will,” Bouterse said, without ruling out a coalition with President Ronald Venetiaan’s New Front for Democracy party, which won 14 seats in Tuesday’s election. Seven seats went to the A Combination movement of former rebel leader Ronnie Brunswijk and six to the People’s Alliance of Paul Somohardjo, who recently split with the Venetiaan administration to form his own political movement.
Standard & Poor’s rating agency said yesterday it had affirmed its B+ rating on the country’s long-term sovereign credit based on the general positive outlook after the elections.
“Until the new government is formed, Suriname’s overall economic policies will remain uncertain, but are unlikely to change drastically,” S&P credit analyst Richard Francis said.
Venetiaan, a mathematician, was reelected to a third five-year term in 2005 but only after the National Assembly deadlocked twice on the decision.
Should the assembly fail to reach a deal over the presidency, the vote will be passed to the United People’s Assembly — a special assembly of 919 lawmakers and elected national and local officials where candidates only need to secure a simple majority.
Bouterse’s Mega Combination movement has more than 560 seats in the special assembly.
His trial started in 2007 over the killings of the opposition leaders, but he has refused to show up at court at times, delaying the process. A Dutch court convicted him of drug trafficking in absentia, preventing him from traveling to countries with an extradition treaty with the Netherlands.
