President Bouterse, who in May 2010 joined an elite group of former dictators to be elected by the ballot box, has instructed his Nationale Democratische Partij (NDP), the principal force in the ruling Mega Combinatie (MC) coalition, to slip into election mode with less than six months to go until elections. MC fell 11 seats short of a two-thirds majority in the 51-seat unicameral national assembly in the last elections and had to persuade A-Combinatie (A-C), an amalgam of parties drawn from the Maroon communities near French Guiana, and Volks Alliantie, which represents the Javanese communities, to enter a coalition.
A few populist measures like raising pensions and child benefits as the electoral campaign gets underway will clearly do no harm to Bouterse’s bid to propel the MC to a two-thirds majority on its own this time around. But Bouterse insists that he has delivered on his promise during his election campaign in 2010 to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to spur the national economic and social development that he maintained, and the public concurred, was never delivered by his long-serving predecessor Ronald Venetiaan (2000-2010).
Just earlier this month, the Bouterse government announced a US$162m project to develop a new railway system over the course of the next 18 months. The Dutch railway systems contractor, Strukton Systems, is likely to be awarded the contract to carry out the construction of a 29-km dual railway track which will run southwards from the capital Paramaribo, where a central station will be built, to Onverwacht, the capital town of Para District, and supply five diesel trains. A second phase of the project would extend the line to the Johan Adolf Pengel international airport.
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