Hearings to guide amendment of Suriname Constitution

(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Not only legal experts, but people from society will be asked to contribute to the amendment of the Constitution. A commission recently appointed by President Desi  Bouterse will soon hold hearings with civil society organizations and institutes.

“The invitations have already been issued. The organization’s representatives will then indicate what the bottlenecks are in the current document,” commission chairman Sam Polanen confirms. The commission has also drafted questionnaires which individuals and organizations which have not been invited to the hearings can use to indicate what they would like to see amended. “This seemed to be most effective way to involve our entire society. Hearings and questionnaires were also used when the country’s first Constitution was drafted in 1975,” Polanen says. The government’s policy statement includes amending the Constitution as one of its priorities, as political and civil society organizations have expressed many reservations about provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

Amendments planned for 1988 have never been implemented. The commission will fully revise the Constitution, after which the draft bill will be presented to the government. Afterwards, this draft will be presented to Parliament for debate and approval. Polanen says important issues in this regard include decentralization and Suriname’s electoral and presidential system.