In Suriname…
…New Front’s Ruth Wijdenbosch is Vice Chairman
The Surinamese Parliament yesterday afternoon elected Mega-Combination candidate Jennifer Simons as the Speaker of the National Assembly, edging out People’s Alliance (VA) Paul Somohardjo to the post 26 votes to 24.

Ruth Wijdenbosch of the New Front is the new Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, with the MC’s candidate losing that contest by one vote to MC’s 25. Further, there was one spoilt vote. Ronald Venetiaan could not vote as he is still president of the country.

The election of the Chairman of the National Assembly is said to be one of the first functions of the newly formed government led by Chairman of the Mega-Combination, former military strongman and presidential hopeful Desi Bouterse.

Reports from Suriname are that Mega Combination (MC) chairman Bouterse will not give up in his fight for the presidency now that the New Front, People’s Alliance and A-Combination have signed a cooperation agreement, making things more difficult for the former military strongman.

According to reports, this step has practically sidelined the MC, but Bouterse says he is prepared for the ‘titanic battle’ in the United People’s Assembly (VVV).

Sources said that at a meeting held on Saturday, he called on the MC’s elected representatives to pull together now more than ever and enter the VVV in unity.

MC and AC fell out after the former dictator failed to facilitate AC’s demand to present candidates for six ministerial posts and the vice president. According to news reports, Bouterse was only willing to accommodate the AC with five ministerial posts and allegedly threatened to enter into talks with Somohardjo’s People’s Alliance. But the People’s Alliance and AC are said to have formed a pact in order to secure a stronger position against Bouterse.

“We will go to the VVV and I assure you we will win”, Bouterse promised, according to an article in the English bulletin of De Ware Tijd on Monday.

DWT is reporting that within A-Combination (AC), Ronnie Brunswijk is not totally satisfied with the results of the talks with the NF. On Sunday afternoon, the AC and People’s Alliance (VA) met for hours at the headquarters of Pertjajah Luhur and the MC was also said to be discussing the current political situation until late Sunday evening.

According to DWT, Brunswijk is very disappointed about the division of political posts and met on Sunday with Paul Somohardjo of the People’s Alliance (VA), with which a cooperation agreement had been signed last Friday.

The article said that when the cooperation agreement between New Front, A-Combination and People’s Alliance was signed after a long meeting at the VHP centre ‘De Olifant’ last Saturday night, Brunswijk was absent during the signing ceremony and did not seem happy.

The article said that rumors about difficult talks were rife, given the long time it took before the agreement was signed around 1:30h Sunday. According to DWT, negotiations were indeed bogged down for a long time, and one of the reasons was that Brunswijk was having problems with some things.

Vice President Ram Sardjoe (VHP) said that at first, “we were working with a document that was too long and we decided to shorten it.” The document, said DWT, only speaks in more or less concrete terms about the highest government positions.

According to the article, in the cooperation between the New Front, A-Combination and People’s Alliance (now increasingly known as NAV), the New Front can nominate the President and Deputy Speaker of Parliament. It said that the VHP, with its eight seats is the biggest New Front partner, and it is assumed that it will nominate the President.

But the VHP’s nomination will depend on who the Mega Combination (MC) will nominate as President and Vice President. Possible MC Vice-Presidential candidates being mentioned for some time now include Jules Wijdenbosch, Rabin Parmessar, Jennifer Simons and former Finance Minister, Subhas Mungra. Desi Bouterse is still the MC’s candidate for President for the time being, according to DWT.