PARAMAIBO, Suriname - President Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokhi says he will only consider entering into talks for a new coalition government after the official results of Sunday’s general elections are know.
President Santokhi leaves party headquarters during the early hours on Monday“At some point you will have to use the result as a basis. That is the official mandate of the people to the political parties. Then you see what it is, how big it is, and on that basis you work out options for cooperation,” says Santokhi
He said that Progressive Reform Party (VHP) of which he is chairman, is open to any cooperation that is necessary for the progress of the development of the country. Preliminary figures show both the m
The preliminary figures show that the outgoing coalition government and the main opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) have so far won 18 seats each in the 51 member National Assembly.
“We are on the right track. There are still a few thousand votes to be counted and we hope that it will continue in our favor, but we will calmly wait for the result. We are happy, because we know how this result came about. But we are where we are now and we will continue from there. This is the first step – and believe me, we are already working on it,” said the NDP’s chair, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons.
NDP vice-chairman, Ashwin Adhin, remains optimistic that the party could win at least 20 seats.
“One more seat already gives a signal of gain. The counting is still ongoing, so let’s hope that it will be at least 20 seats, that would be better. In any case, a difference of two seats would be even better,” he said, adding that the NDP must always be prepared to talk to everyone. According to him, a collaboration between the NDP and the VHP should therefore not be ruled out.
NDP’s chair, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons addressing supporters early Monday morning.
Santokhi said he is also counting on 20 seats.
“Projections were made on that basis, but we also said that everything would depend on the outcome of the elections and what the final result would be. We also saw good results in Nickerie, Wanica, Saramacca and Commewijne. Only Paramaribo was disappointing,” he added.
He said that there had already been discussions with other parties before the elections about what the possible outcome could be and on what basis a collaboration or coalition could be formed.
“So those lines have already been set out to all political parties, and we are now going to continue to pursue those lines,” Santolkhi said, adding that the VHP is open to any cooperation that is necessary for the progress of the development of the country.
The preliminary results so far show Santokhi’s VHP had won 17 seats and 75,983 votes and the smaller parties, now potential kingmakers, won the remaining 16 of 51 total seats.
Just under 400,000 registered voters were eligible to cast their ballots across the country and once the new parliament is seated, lawmakers will choose Suriname’s next president and vice-president in the coming weeks.
