Coaltion partners at signing ceremony on Tuesday.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname--Suriname is getting its first female president. The entire country seemed glued to its television sets Tuesday night, to watch leaders from the NDP, ABOP, NPS, A20, PL and BEP put their signatures under a declaration of intent to form a coalition for the 2025-2030 Government.
Barely two days after the May 25 elections, the parties have come to a surprisingly speedy agreement to rally around biggest vote-getter NDP. This relegates the VHP party of current President Chandrikapersad Santokhi – the second largest vote getter – to the opposition seats in Parliament.
As the party leaders were gathered Tuesday evening in a packed ballroom at Marriot Hotel in Paramaribo, the obvious leader was NDP chairlady Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, slated to be the first female president of the South American republic.
The 71-year-old career politician has served in the National Assembly since 1996, serving two terms as parliament chair from 2010 to 2020. In 2020, even while winning a seat again, she stepped down as MP and announced her retirement from politics. On July 13, 2024, she succeeded Dési Bouterse as the leader of the National Democratic Party. When the former military-strongman-turned-President passed away on December 23, 2024 at the age of 79, Geerlings was pushed into the party’s lead.
The NDP claimed 18 of the 51 seats in Parliament during the elections on Sunday. Initial expectations had been that the party would seek a collaboration with Santokhi’s VHP that won 17 seats, a loss of three seats in Parliament. This would have been the obvious route, but instead NDP quickly reached agreements with NPS (7 seats), BEP (1 seat), PL (2 seats) and newcomer A20 (1 seat).
When the current coalition party ABOP of former guerilla leader Ronnie Brunswijk jumped ship and joined with NDP late Tuesday afternoon, VHP’s fate was sealed through a collaboration between parties that earlier seemed at each other’s throats.
“Everybody was tired of Santokhi. He believed himself to be king and ruled unilaterally. This is punishment,” political commentator Winston Ramautarsing said. “That’s why ABOP was eager to jump ship and why NDP would rather choose to form a coalition with the ‘smaller’ parties.”
Responding to concerns that such a quilt-like coalition will make governing tedious, he opined that the grouping gives the NDP a comfortable majority in Parliament. “This coalition has 34 (of the 51) seats in Parliament. Even if one party would walk out, they still maintain a majority.”
Speaking after she signed the Intent to Form Government document with her fellow coalition leaders, Geerlings-Simons said that the work begins now. “My party won most seats, but we decided to work with the rest of the parties gathered here around the table and we agreed with each other to start off with honesty. Together we represent a wealth of expertise, and we have a new opportunity here to do things correctly.
“This country is rich; we didn’t make it rich, but God did. We agreed to work together to ensure that the people of the country will enjoy its riches. Those were the first things we agreed upon; we didn’t even talk about the governing accord yet and which parties will run which ministries. We agreed on honest governance, and proper economic and fiscal management, to ensure that Surinamers can live in prosperity. We want Government to be better, more effective and more transparent. And now that we have signed this document to intend to achieve this, now we can start the talks about forming the cabinet.”
That is when the boardroom erupted with her followers chanting “Jenny, Jenny, Jenny.”
Noteworthy is that if Geerlings-Simons ends up elected as Suriname’s first female president, it would be the first time that the Caribbean would have four female presidents and, in effect, six female leaders in the region, as there are also two female Prime Ministers in the region currently.
