Yearbook 2010
Suriname. The year was very successful for Suriname's
former dictator, 64-year-old Desi Bouterse. On May 25, his
coalition Mega Combinatie won 23 out of 41 seats in
Congress, while President Runaldo Ronald Venetian's New
Front became the second largest group with 13 seats. Thus,
the game began to mobilize support for Bouterses candidacy
for the presidential post, which is added by Congress if
there is a two-thirds majority for any candidate. As it was
now, the eleven mandates were adopted in support of
Bouterses candidacy. But before the vote in Congress on July
19, he had succeeded in getting over his side A-Combinatie,
a coalition of several small parties, and was consequently
elected president. Ironically, A-Combinatie is led by Ronnie
Brunswijk, one of Bouterses' former bodyguards who, during
his dictatorship in the 1980s, led an armed uprising against
him.
According to
COUNTRYAAH, the election of Bouterse as president caused some
embarrassing diplomatic problems for Suriname. Bouterse is
wanted internationally for drug smuggling following a
verdict in the Netherlands in 1999, and the presidential
installation on August 12 was not proved by a single foreign
head of state. Many observers also made sarcastic comments
about Bouterses' election of Justice Minister Martin
Misiedjan, who confesses to the rastafari religion where
marijuana is used as part of the ceremony. Also in Suriname,
a legal process is underway against Bouterse for a massacre
during his time as dictator in the early 1980s, and the
outgoing President Venetiaan refused to follow tradition and
symbolically surrender power at the installation ceremony.
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