Suriname - 1991 General Election
The Constitution approved by a popular referendum in 1987 stipulates that power and authority rest with the Surinamese people, and it provides for the right to change the government peacefully through the direct election by secret ballot of a National Assembly of 51 members every 5 years. The Constitution provides for the existence of political parties. Opposition parties regularly present opposing views in the National Assembly, the mass media, and in public gatherings. However, the military made it increasingly obvious that, in practice, they are beyond the control of the civilian authorities and free to act as they so determine. Thus, in actuality, the people's constitutional authority and power to change their government is significantly restricted.
Until December 24, Suriname was nominally governed by the popularly elected National Assembly and a President chosen by the Assembly. In practice, however, much real power was exercised by the military through its executive organ, the Military Authority. Key military figures, including Bouterse, are also leaders of the country's most active opposition political party, the National Democratic Party.
The military tried to intimidate critics and attacked democratic institutions almost routinely during 1990. On December 30, 1989, a grenade was thrown at the bedroom window of the Finance Minister, Subhas Mungra. Many knowledgeable observers believed the attack to have been politically motivated. A series of apparent arson attacks destroyed a number of public buildings: on December 8, 1989, the National Courthouse was burned to the ground with the loss of all its records, including, critics of the military state, documents that might someday have been used to prosecute Bouterse and other army personnel for crimes ranging from the torture and execution of 15 civilian critics of the military in 1982 to present day narcotics trafficking. On January 31, 1990, a fire destroyed the upper story of the State Council building, which until shortly before had served as the office of the Vice President. On April 16 an arson attack razed a wing of the Ministry of Economic affairs, destroying the Minister's office and many records. A series of drive—by shootings at police stations which began in December 1989 and which were apparently perpetrated by the military or its allies, continued.
Throughout the year 1990, the governing three—party coalition, the Front for Democracy and Development, retained its large majority in the National Assembly. The Government's composition reflected Suriname's ethnic divisions by including political parties representing each of the country's largest racial groups, the Hindustanis (Asian Indians), the Creoles (generally the descendants of emancipated African slaves), and the Javanese. The presidency was filled by a member of the Hindustani party, while the vice presidency was filled by the leader of the principal Creole party.
Continuing a trend which began in 1988, military leaders acted to forestall government actions with which they disagreed on issues affecting their perceived interests. A major feature of the year was a campaign of intimidation aimed at government officials, human rights workers, journalists, and other critics of the military, which many credible observers believe was directed by the military. Stability and development in Suriname continued to be adversely affected by the failure of efforts to resolve a 4 year—old Maroon insurgency in the interior. (Maroons are the descendants of escaped slaves who fled to the interior several centuries ago and retained many African customs.) The peace agreement reached in July 1989 at Kourou, French Guiana, between the Government and Maroon insurgents remained unimplemented.
Various efforts were launched during the year 1990 to recast the agreement in a way that would meet military objections to the original document. At year's end, these efforts had not succeeded, and Maroon refugees in French Guiana and displaced persons in the capital remain unwilling to return to their traditional territories for fear of military retaliation. The problems of the interior were greatly exacerbated by the violent actions of a number of illegal armed bands of Amerindians and Maroons which purported to advance an independent political agenda hostile to the Government and the main Maroon insurgency, but which in fact were formed, armed, and directed by the military.
Two bodyguards of Maroon insurgent leader Ronnie Brunswijk were killed in March 1990 when Brunswijk, who had come to Paramaribo for peace negotiations under a guarantee of security extended by President Shankar, was invited on March 26 to the headquarters of military commander Bouterse. According to credible eyewitness accounts, Bouterse ordered Brunswijk arrested while, simultaneously, military officers fatally shot the two bodyguards. Following his March 28 release and return to eastern Suriname, Brunswijk named the army officers he believed were responsible for the killings and demanded that the Government take action against them. In a subsequent interview, army chief of staff Badressein Sital called the killing of the bodyguards "a normal act" because the Maroons were terrorists.
The limited improvement in the economy during 1988 and the first half of 1989 came to an end, with no significant growth in 1989 in the real gross domestic product and an expected decline in 1990. This resulted from several interrelated factors, including a severe foreign exchange shortage; a consequent scarcity of essential imported inputs and spare parts; declining output in the key bauxite sector, which provides 70—80 percent of foreign exchange earnings.
The spotty improvement in Suriname's human rights situation that had been registered since 1988 was reversed in 1990. The military refused to accept direction and control by the elected civilian Government and, in the pursuit of its own perceived interests, arbitrarily detained and killed critics and opponents, intimidated journalists, restricted shipments of food and medicine to areas of conflict with insurgent groups, and engaged in numerous other abuses of human rights.
On December 24, the military carried out a bloodless coup, removing from office by the threat of force the civilian President, Vice President, and Cabinet elected in 1987. The Army subsequently claimed its action was a "constitutional intervention," permitted by an imprecise constitutional clause which charges the Military Authority with "guaranteeing the conditions under which the Suriname people can bring about and consolidate a peaceful transition to a democratic and socially just society." Critics point out, however, that nothing in the Constitution gives the Military Authority the power to remove the president, vice president and cabinet or to determine the tenure of a government.
The National Assembly hastily approved military-selected replacements on 29 December 1990. Suriname's transition to democracy suffered numerous setbacks in 1990, culminating in the December 24 military coup d'etat which deposed the democratically elected government led by President Ramsewak Shankar. Over the course of the year, the constitutional framework established in 1988 following 8 years of military rule increasingly seemed merely the form rather than the substance of democratic self—rule, as the military, led by former ruler Col. Desi Bouterse, consolidated its position as the dominant political force in the country.
On December 29 the Chairman of the National Assembly, which had remained in being after the coup, contrived a so—called vote of acclamation that purported to "elect" the military's candidates for President and Vice President. A number of Assembly members objected to this procedure, pointing to the Constitution's explicit language calling for voting by secret ballot on the appointment and nomination of officeholders and indicated that they would have opposed the Army's candidates had they been allowed to vote.
There were an increased number of credible reports following the December 24, 1990, coup concerning the illegal monitoring of telephone calls by security service personnel. There were also continuing credible reports of surveillance of the movements of human rights activists and critics of the military, and threats by letter and telephone to government officials, policemen, human rights workers, and journalists, presumably made by the military and its allies. One member of the National Assembly fled the country after receiving a series of anonymous death threats which followed his participation in a December 29, 1990, protest against the Assembly's installation of the military's candidates for president and vice president.
Due to the second coup known as telephone or kerstcoup on 24 December 1990 once again early elections were called for May 25, 1991. The government held new elections on 25 May 1991. NPS candidate Runaldo Venetiaan was elected President, and the VHP's Jules Ajodhia became Vice President of the New Front Coalition government.
Suriname's difficult democratization process, which suffered a severe setback on December 24, 1990, when the country's military carried out its second coup d'etat in slightly more than a decade, resumed its uneven course in 1991 with the holding of general elections on May 25 and the inauguration of a new, democratically elected President on September 16. During most of ~ the year, however, Suriname was governed by a Cabinet, reportedly handpicked by military commander Desi Bouterse, and a President and Vice President installed by the National Assembly on December 29, 1990, under pressure from the military.
Prior to the 25 May 1991 election. Maroon residents of the upper Suriname river area of the interior pleaded with both the army and the Jungle Commando to leave the area, declaring that they no longer saw any difference between the soldiers and the Jungle Commando and wished to vote in an atmosphere free of intimidation. However, months later, elements of both the army and the Jungle Commando remained in central, eastern, and southeastern Suriname. The Jungle Commando reportedly extorted gold from miners in southeastern Suriname, many of them Brazilian, and its members frequently demanded tribute from villages they passed through. On June 21, armed members of the Mandela group kidnaped four Maroon gold miners in the vicinity of the village of Kwakugron in Brokopondo district and held them for ransom. Three days later, after protests from leading Maroon figures and human rights groups, the four men, one of whom had become seriously ill while in captivity, were freed, but only after their relatives paid the Mandela group ransom in gold.
The interim regime successfully administered the May election, which was generally judged to be free and fair, but also used the powers of the State, including public expenditure and manipulation of government-owned media, in the electoral interests of the promilitary National Democratic Party (NDP). Manipulation by the interim Government of the state-owned media in the interests of the promilitary NDP was extensive during the political campaign that led up to the May 25 election. During all but the last few days of the campaign, the television stations refused to run political advertisements other than those of the NDP, which were run repeatedly.
The right to assemble peaceably and to form associations for nonviolent purposes is protected constitutionally, and these rights are respected in practice. Official registration is required in many instances and is generally granted. Most large public meetings require a permit, and these are routinely granted. Electoral campaign rallies by all parties were permitted and held without incident, with the exception of the cancellation by organizers of several public meetings scheduled to be held by parties other than the promilitary NDP in areas of the country under the control of the Tucajana Amazone Amerindian group, due to Tucajana intimidation and a lack of security.
The May 25 general election was widely praised by international observers as generally free and fair. However, due to a lengthy and complex process of verifying the result and failure by the new National Assembly on two occasions to elect a President by the required two-thirds vote, the election of the President by the United People's Assembly did not occur until September 6, with the inauguration of the President taking place 10 days later. This delay meant that the country was ruled by a nonelected, interim government for the first 8 1/2 months of the year.
The interim government used the powers of office to promote the electoral campaign of the ruling, promilitary NDP by dispensing government largess to influence voters and manipulating the state-owned media. Some observers believe this was, in fact, the strategy behind the coup: to use the time the interim government had in office to launch a populist program which would make the previous democratically elected government appear ineffectual by comparison. The regime carried out major public works projects, granted a generous wage increase to civil servants, attempted to enforce price controls and restrain the black market, and increased imports of popular foodstuffs at subsidized prices. This free-spending approach proved popular with many voters, particularly in poorer areas, and resulted in NDP electoral gains, but left the new democratic Government with a large budget deficit and an exhausted foreign exchange reserve.
The Constitution provides for the existence of political parties, and 16 parties of widely differing ideologies and programs competed for votes on the May 25 ballot. There are no special conditions or restrictions on nationality or citizenship that limit participation in the political system. In practice, however, the less educated Maroons and Amerindians of the interior are largely outside the legal political process.
Nevertheless, in the May 25 election the NDP was soundly defeated by a coalition of prodemocracy parties known as the New Front for Democracy and Development, which took 30 of the Assembly's 51 seats. On September 6 a constitutionally mandated body called the United People's Assembly elected by an 80-percent majority Ronald Venetiaan, the New Front's candidate, as Suriname's new President.
The Venetiaan government was able to effect a settlement to Suriname's domestic insurgency through the August 1992 Peace Accord with Bush Negro (Maroon) and Amerindian rebels. In April 1993, Desi Bouterse left his position as commander of the armed forces and was replaced by Arthy Gorre, a military officer committed to bringing the armed forces under civilian government control. Economic reforms instituted by the Venetiaan government eventually helped curb inflation, unify the official and unofficial exchange rates, and improve the government's economic situation by re-establishing relations with the Dutch, thereby opening the way for a major influx of Dutch financial assistance.
Despite these successes, the governing coalition lost support and failed to retain control of the government in the subsequent round of national elections. The rival National Democratic Party (NDP), founded in the early 1990s by Desi Bouterse, benefited from the New Front government's loss of popularity.
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