Surinamese politics are great. It is a banana republic style of government. Venetiaan was the best (or least bad) presidential candidate. In the last five years his government managed to do absolutely nothing, but everything is better than a president being the puppet of a convicted drug dealer.
Previous president Jules Wijdenbosch was also from Bouterse's party, he managed to leave the country in a bankrupt state in just five years time, by building two bridges. He was elected the same way as Mr Venetiaan today, in the United People's Assembly. In 1996, the win of Wijdenbosch came completely unexpected, there were a lot of bribery allegations.
There were fears that bribery would change today's elections too, and still about 100 representatives of Venetiaan's New Forum coalition voted for Parmessar.
It is a miracle that Mr Parmessar was even allowed to take part in the elections. He didn't fulfill two conditions the Surinamese constitution has for presidential candidates. He didn't live in the country uninterrupted the last six years (living in Bodegraven, the Netherlands since 2002). He wasn't even Surinamese, having a Dutch passport. Although he stated having a dual nationality, this is forbidden by Dutch and Surinamese laws. He also applied for a visum to visit Suriname this year. Still he was allowed to take part in the elections. Great country.
