What's at Stake in Suriname Following Its General Election? 

Although trained as a medical doctor, Dr. Jennifer Geerlings-Simon would enter the presidency with a wealth of political and legislative experience. She was first elected to the National Assembly in 1996 and was re-elected five times, serving as chair of the Assembly during her last two terms, from 2010 to 2020. In 2020, she announced her decision to retire from politics.

Popular within her party and among its supporters, she returned to helm the NDP in July 2024 when its leader and founder, Dési Bouterse, stepped down while on the lam from a conviction on murder charges connected to his military dictatorship in the 1980s. Bouterse led a coup in 1980—less than five years after the country had gained independence from the Netherlands—and effectively ran the country as a military leader until 1987, when he allowed elections and created the NDP as a vehicle for the presidency. Although the NDP did not win elections that year, Bouterse was eventually elected to the presidency in 2010 and served two consecutive terms until 2020, the period during which Geerlings-Simons was chair of the National Assembly. Bouterse died on December 24, 2024, never having served time for the 1982 execution of political dissidents that came to be known as “the December Murders.”

The ascent of Geerlings-Simons will mark the end of the presidential tenure of Chan Santokhi. Santokhi, chair of the VHP, was elected to the presidency in 2020 after his party won 20 seats in the Assembly and formed a coalition government. His VHP party was the second most-voted party after the NDP.  

Santokhi himself has direct experience with former president Bouterse. As the country’s justice and police minister (2005–2010), he instigated the criminal investigations and prosecution of Bouterse for offenses committed during his military rule.

Suriname’s oil and gas reserves have brought unprecedented global attention to South America’s smallest independent nation, including a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio just two months before the election. In total, Suriname is estimated to have almost 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and around 17 trillion cubic meters of natural gas within its territory, gas reserves greater than those of either Brazil or Mexico.

How soon will the country be an energy powerhouse? The first project set to come onstream is the $12.2 billion GranMorgu offshore development in Block 58 led by French company Total Energies. Texas-based hydrocarbon exploration company APA Corp and Suriname’s state oil company, Staatsolie, are also involved. Estimates indicate recoverable reserves of more than 750 million barrels of oil. Oil production is due to begin in 2028, with an approximate capacity of 220,000 barrels per day of oil and 550 million cubic meters per day of natural gas. Gas production is expected to start in 2032. 

Speaking in 2023, Staatsolie’s managing director Annand Jagessar projected that the GranMorgu project could earn up to $26 billion, equivalent to six times Suriname’s current GDP. The hydrocarbon bonanza has drawn parallels to neighboring Guyana, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies since oil production there began in 2019.

In anticipation of the economic windfall, President Santokhi established a sovereign wealth fund to help protect against price shocks. In November 2024, he also announced a “Royalties for Everyone” program through which each citizen would receive $750 in a savings account with an annual interest rate of 7 percent from income earned from the Gran Morgu oilfield. 

Alongside preparing for Suriname’s fossil fuel future, Santokhi made progress in reducing the country's debt burden and annual inflation rates. When Santokhi entered office in 2020, Suriname’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 146.4 percent; the latest IMF figures for 2025 show a decline to 86.6 percent. Likewise, after inflation hit a peak of 59.1 percent in 2021, it slowed to 8.7 percent by 2025. However, cuts to fuel and electricity subsidies—austerity measures linked to a $688 million IMF loan approved in December 2021—set off protests in early 2023 and contributed to a presidential approval rating of 3 percent, according to a 2023 AmericasBarometer survey.

Geerlings-Simons is predicted to carry on the NDP’s inclination to high social spending and economic nationalism. The NDP’s manifesto also emphasizes intentions to increase productivity in export-oriented sectors by streamlining bureaucracy, improving transport infrastructure, and increasing the digitalization of government processes.

On the fossil fuel front, Geerlings-Simons promised to maintain existing oil contracts and use energy revenues to address economic inequality. She also proposed introducing local content laws that would require “all enterprises to work with Surinamese and buy Suriname products.”

However, the five smaller parties that agreed to join the NDP’s coalition, and have now negotiated their positions in a new administration, represent a range of economic and ethnic interests in a country noted for its racial and religious diversity. Three of the five parties were initially members of the current government coalition, but left at various moments, citing a lack of input and alleged corruption within the Santokhi administration. This includes the center-left National Party of Suriname (NPS), which left the incumbent government in early 2023. The NPS won six seats in the 2025 election and its leader, Gregory Rusland, is the incoming coalition’s vice presidential candidate. Rusland's party ran on a social justice platform and, like the NDP, stressed that Suriname’s fossil fuel boom should benefit all Surinamese citizens.