Six weeks after assuming power, Suriname’s President Chandrikapersad Santokhi is coming to terms with the scale of the challenge he inherited from his populist authoritarian predecessor Desi Bouterse (2010-2020). Unlike Bouterse, however, Santokhi is reliant on coalition partners to ensure governability and to provide a majority in the 51-seat national assembly (DNA). There are already signs of frustration within Santokhi’s Vooruitstrevende Hervormingspartij (VHP) that his anti-corruption agenda is being constrained by his vice-president, Ronnie Brunswijk, the leader of the Maroon nationalist Algemene Bevrijdings-en Ontwikkelingspartij (Abop). On 20 August a VHP legislator, Kishan Ramsukul, took matters into his own hands, by filing a complaint before the attorney general’s office accusing the Abop-approved chairman of the state energy firm Energie Bedrijven Suriname (EBS), Andy Rusland, of corruption.End of preview - This article contains approximately 633 words.
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