Suriname 2020 Election

[Zinneke]

Hey an actual election taking place!

https://twitter.com/AmericaElige/status/1265264402514632705

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/suriname-election-preliminary-results-show-opposition-winning-200527174008725.html

Wondering if anyone cares to comment on the ethnic divide in particular and whether it weighs on party lines.

[CumbrianLefty]

Quite a left preponderance there, at least on paper?

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Quite a left preponderance there, at least on paper?

NDP is electoral vessel for semi-dictator and drug dealer Dési Bouterse so I wouldn't really call them "left-wing".

[warandwar]

Quite a left preponderance there, at least on paper?

NDP is electoral vessel for semi-dictator and drug dealer Dési Bouterse so I wouldn't really call them "left-wing".

Desi used to *claim* to be left at some point, certainly was doing so up until 1982, when he started murdering the Left. Maybe the tweet confused him for Kirby.

I am sorry to see they didn't bother putting the ABOP on a left-right spectrum. It would have been funny to see where they slotted in Maroon guerillas. But it's only fair for the only liberated people on earth.

[CumbrianLefty]

I am sorry to see they didn't bother putting the ABOP on a left-right spectrum. It would have been funny to see where they slotted in Maroon guerillas. But it's only fair for the only liberated people on earth.

Do tell us more.......

[PSOL]

There’s a new government now without parties from the old regime. Things are looking up for the Surinamese people.

[warandwar]

There’s a new government now without parties from the old regime. Things are looking up for the Surinamese people.

That's what Guyana thought in 2015....Wrong!

[PSOL]

There’s a new government now without parties from the old regime. Things are looking up for the Surinamese people.

That's what Guyana thought in 2015....Wrong!

It’s of course going to be a long struggle, but at least there is a greater chance now.

[warandwar]

There’s a new government now without parties from the old regime. Things are looking up for the Surinamese people.

That's what Guyana thought in 2015....Wrong!

It’s of course going to be a long struggle, but at least there is a greater chance now.

Nope. IMF has guaranteed that there will not be. Desi Bouterse at least had his drug dealing connections, now that industry is gone....

[PSOL]

There’s a new government now without parties from the old regime. Things are looking up for the Surinamese people.

That's what Guyana thought in 2015....Wrong!

It’s of course going to be a long struggle, but at least there is a greater chance now.

Nope. IMF has guaranteed that there will not be. Desi Bouterse at least had his drug dealing connections, now that industry is gone....

I hate that I see where your getting at, and that your pessimism is a far more realistic bet then whatever hopes of a silver lining there could be.

[CumbrianLefty]

Seriously, why are the IMF such sociopaths?

[PSOL]

Seriously, why are the IMF such sociopaths?

You have to be to maintain the current system.

[Hash]

[PSOL]

Desi Bouterse is gone
 Bye Felicia!

[CumbrianLefty]

Desi Bouterse is gone
 Bye Felicia!

Good stuff, arrested next hopefully.

[Former President tack50]

Let me guess, the purple areas are the poorer parts of Paramaribo as well as rural areas where the election was rigged.

Yellow had some sort of home field advantage, though idk about those 2 districts in Paramaribo

And orange basically got everyone else

[warandwar]

As I understand:
yellow = petit marronnage (Maroon communities, semi-free for fenturies)
Purple = NDP - Afro-Suriname plus poorer areas attracted by Bouterse and the street organization's sops
Brown = Indo-Suriname plus areas turned off by Bouterse's action.
I don't know about any outright rigging.

[ottermax]

Thank you for these maps. Surinamese election results are so interesting. For a group to only have 37% of the population I'm surprised the Afro-Surinamese hold so much political power compared to the Indian or Javanese. There are three parties representing Afro-Surinamese and despite one of the parties being quite underrepresented they still are represented quite well and now the Maroons are in power.

I wish I did know more about the distinctions between the Maroons and other Afro-Surinamese in terms of socioeconomic status. For a group of freed / escaped slaves usually they would be considered more "privileged," but I'm not sure if that's the perception in Suriname.

[Hash]

Let me guess, the purple areas are the poorer parts of Paramaribo as well as rural areas where the election was rigged.

Yellow had some sort of home field advantage, though idk about those 2 districts in Paramaribo

And orange basically got everyone else

Surinamese politics and elections play out largely along ethnic lines. The NDP (in purple) won every resort with a Creole plurality except one in Paramaribo, and also won every resort with an indigenous plurality. The VHP (in orange) won every resort with an Hindustani plurality except one, as well as every resort with a Javanese plurality. That being said, the NDP is the only party which won seats in every single district, and its support is more balanced across the country (it placed either first or second in every district), something that cannot be said for the VHP even in spite of its excellent results this year. In districts with a small/negligible Hindustani (Indo-Surinamese) population, the VHP's results were in the single digits.

The ABOP (yellow) is a Maroon party and it does indeed have a very obvious favourite son advantage in Ronnie Brunswijk's stronghold of Marowijne district (where it won 64% overall and even higher in Brunswijk's home base around Moengotapoe resort). Its support among Maroon voters in other parts of the country is less impressive, and the NDP does appear to do well with Maroon voters in Brokopondo and Para districts (less so this year than in 2015). This year, ABOP did win all but four resorts with a Maroon plurality - and those two resorts in Paramaribo have a Maroon plurality (there is a substantial, and afaik growing, Maroon population in the capital).

Surinamese elections have a lot of problems, but there isn't much conclusive evidence of rigging or other foul-play in the actual voting and tallying (unlike in neighbouring Guyana...).

[jeron]

Let me guess, the purple areas are the poorer parts of Paramaribo as well as rural areas where the election was rigged.

Yellow had some sort of home field advantage, though idk about those 2 districts in Paramaribo

And orange basically got everyone else

Surinamese politics and elections play out largely along ethnic lines. The NDP (in purple) won every resort with a Creole plurality except one in Paramaribo, and also won every resort with an indigenous plurality. The VHP (in orange) won every resort with an Hindustani plurality except one, as well as every resort with a Javanese plurality. That being said, the NDP is the only party which won seats in every single district, and its support is more balanced across the country (it placed either first or second in every district), something that cannot be said for the VHP even in spite of its excellent results this year. In districts with a small/negligible Hindustani (Indo-Surinamese) population, the VHP's results were in the single digits.

The ABOP (yellow) is a Maroon party and it does indeed have a very obvious favourite son advantage in Ronnie Brunswijk's stronghold of Marowijne district (where it won 64% overall and even higher in Brunswijk's home base around Moengotapoe resort). Its support among Maroon voters in other parts of the country is less impressive, and the NDP does appear to do well with Maroon voters in Brokopondo and Para districts (less so this year than in 2015). This year, ABOP did win all but four resorts with a Maroon plurality - and those two resorts in Paramaribo have a Maroon plurality (there is a substantial, and afaik growing, Maroon population in the capital).

Surinamese elections have a lot of problems, but there isn't much conclusive evidence of rigging or other foul-play in the actual voting and tallying (unlike in neighbouring Guyana...).

VHP is less Hindustani than it used to be though. It tries to broaden its appeal and These elections ‘only’ 45% of its candidates were Hindustanis. (In previous elections it was about 90%).

There were reports about Coronie (the smallest electoral district) where Haitians were brought in by bus to vote. In Coronie about 400 votes is enough for a seat. The vote total for NDP in that district magically went up from 759 in 2015 to 919 during these elections and they took the second seat in the district. Nationally the NDP got about 50,000 votes less. No hard proof but suspicious to say the least.

[warandwar]

I would take any news story involving "Haitians" in the Caribbean with a massive grain of salt. "Venezuelans" too, at this point. It's just used as a catch all for "bad people."

[jeron]

I would take any news story involving "Haitians" in the Caribbean with a massive grain of salt. "Venezuelans" too, at this point. It's just used as a catch all for "bad people."

Whether it were Haitians or not does not really matter. Apparently people were brought in by bus from other districts and in Coronie it doesn’t take a lot of votes to get a seat. NPD’s vote total went up by more than 20% while it lost massively everywhere else.