Suriname deadlocked over new president
by Arny Belfor

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
19 July 2005

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) - Suriname's parliament was deadlocked Monday over choosing a new president, with no candidate securing the two-thirds majority needed to become the leader of the divided South American nation.

If lawmakers don't reach a decision this week, the election will be passed to the regional assemblies, where the ruling coalition is considered likely to prevail.

The leadership of the former Dutch colony has been in limbo since President Ronald Venetiaan's New Front coalition lost 10 parliamentary seats in May 25 elections.

The New Front won 23 of 51 seats, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to choose the president and even the simple majority required to govern.

The New Front Alliance on Thursday nominated Venetiaan for president. With its coalition partners—an alliance of representatives of the descendants of former slaves, and a pro-business party—Venetiaan still falls short of the necessary 34 votes.

The May election more than doubled the ranks of former dictator Desi Bouterse's New Democratic party, which won 15 seats. The People's Alliance for Development of former President Jules Wijdenbosch won 5 seats.

Bouterse's and Wijdenbosch's parties on Friday joined ranks to present an opposition ticket, nominating Rabin Parmessar, 52, former managing director of the state run Academic Hospital, for president.

Bouterse, who ruled this former Dutch colony of 450,000 people on the northern rim of South America from 1980 to 1987, was convicted in absentia in 1999 for cocaine smuggling in the Netherlands. He also faces charges at home for allegedly ordering the killing of 15 political opponents in 1982. He has denied wrongdoing in both cases.

The United States and the Netherlands, Suriname's biggest aid donors, have warned that relations with Suriname would suffer if Bouterse took power.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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