Workers at a polling station.
By Marvin Hokstam
PARAMARIBO, Suriname -- As election results in Suriname were trickling in on election day, May 25, 2025, United Reformed Party VHP of sitting president Chandrikapersad Santokhi and National Democratic Party (NDP) of deceased former president Desi Bouterse appear slated to win the National Assembly (DNA). Provisional election results at printing time showed NDP and VHP caught in a toe-to-toe race to each win 18 seats in parliament.
At midnight Sunday, NDP had 62,286 votes, which represented a tiny advantage over VHP’s 61,577 votes. Together, the two winners now have a two-thirds majority, which means they could be able to elect a president in the DNA. To elect the president, 34 seats in the DNA are required. It is clear that neither party will achieve this majority on its own, but together NDP and VHP have 36 seats, more than enough to elect a president without support from other parties.
The other option would be that NDP or VHP would try to form a quilt-like coalition with multiple parties that won less seats: NPS 6, ABOP 5, PL 2, A20 1 and BEP 1. An unlikely feat.
Sunday’s elections have been billed as a turnaround point for the country. On the one hand the electorate appeared quite done with President Santokhi whose tenure was marked by a runaway foreign exchange market and complaints about nepotism. Characteristic in this is the blow voters dealt to his vice president Ronny Brunswijk, a former guerilla leader turned gold miner whose ABOP Party saw a drop from 8 to 5 seats.
Santokhi nonetheless came out as a strong opponent to NDP’s party leader Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, who had set her sights on being the country’s first female president. Both were also the biggest vote-getters for their parties.
Geerlings-Simons, who has been an NDP parliamentarian for the last 20 years, was pushed into the party’s lead when its founder, former military strongman, former party leader and former President Desi Bouterse passed away on December 23, 2024, at the age of 79.
The veteran politician faces competition for her party’s nomination for president from fellow NDP member Ashwin Adhin who served as Bouterse’s Vice President from 2015 to 2020. But on Sunday, as she was casting her vote, she emphasised that she could count on the full support of all structures within the party, including the main board, to become the party's presidential candidate. “But for now, it is important that the NDP wins the elections,” she said, adding that she expected her party to win around 20 seats.
Noteworthy is that if Geerlings-Simons ends up elected as Suriname’s first female president, it would be the first time the Caribbean would have four female Presidents and in effect six female leaders in the region, as there are also two female Prime Ministers currently.
At print-time ballots were still being counted. The Home Ministry reported that a total of 115,780 valid votes had been cast. There were few reports of irregularities throughout the day. At most polling stations a festive atmosphere hung in the air, with sympathisers of all parties waving flags and playing music side by side, outdoing each other in friendly competition of who represented best. Clad in party colours they would chant to any voter who would walk in to “vote with your conscience”; they would even chant this to voters wearing opposing party colours, with a wink-wink and a grin.
One could say that the election of 2025 showed typical Suriname: harmonious and fun, even in a competition with the highest office in the country at stake.
