Elections Suriname: Bouterse's party ahead

May 26, 2015 10:22 AM
PARAMARIBO - Suriname's President Desi Bouterse, a former military ruler convicted of drug trafficking in the Netherlands, looked on course for a second term after his party won a slim majority in parliamentary elections, according to the first results on Tuesday.
 
Based on an unofficial but widely accepted preliminary tally of votes around the South American nation, Bouterse's National Democratic Party won 26 or 27 seats in the 51-member assembly.
 
"The NDP has won the elections," said Bouterse's campaign leader, Ramon Abrahams.
 
The opposition coalition, on track to win 17 or 18 seats, accepted defeat.
 
"We did not make it. That is a disappointment. The voters have spoken and we have to respect that," said Chandrikapersad Santokhi, a former justice minister and police commissioner who leads the V7 opposition coalition and was Bouterse's main rival.
 
Although Bouterse, 69, needs a two-thirds majority in parliament to guarantee a second five-year term, he seemed likely to get that via allies or a separate mechanism whereby a special expanded assembly votes for president.
 
That process, however, could take months.
 
The local election board was due to give final formal results of Monday's election within one or two weeks.
 
Convicted in absentia of drug trafficking by a court in the Netherlands in 1999, Bouterse always has denied wrongdoing.
 
He had also faced prosecution for the execution of 15 opponents in 1982 during his military rule, but the National Assembly passed an amnesty law in 2012 that gave him immunity. Santokhi, then police commissioner, had led the probe.
 
Bouterse's son, Dino, was sentenced in March to 16-1/4 years in prison, after pleading guilty last August to U.S. charges that he tried to offer a base to the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah.
 
Bouterse, a former sergeant who took part in two coups in 1980 and 1990, said Suriname's 550,000 people had benefited economically in the last five years. But opponents accuse his government of cronyism and corruption.
 
Suriname, perched on South America's northeastern shoulder, won independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and is now a gold and bauxite miner with a nascent oil industry.
 
Source: Reuters

Lawyer Roeland Zwanikken considers legal action against ABN AMRO Bank

May 08, 2021 6:14 PM
THE HAGUE--Attorney-at-law Roeland Zwanikken at St. Maarten’s BZSE law office is considering legal action against the intention of the Dutch ABN AMRO Bank to close the bank accounts of its clients in the Dutch Caribbean.

Fiscaal onderzoek bij notariskantoren vinden doorgang

May 07, 2021 8:04 AM
In het Antilliaans Dagblad: Fiscaal onderzoek bij notariskantoren
WILLEMSTAD – De fiscale onderzoeken bij de notarissen vonden en vinden, ondanks de beperkingen van Covid-19, weer doorgang en de medewerking aan de kant van notarissen en adviseurs is daarbij ‘over het algemeen goed’.

Juridische miljoenenstrijd tussen BNP Paribas en Italiaanse prinses verhardt

February 22, 2021 4:51 PM
  • Bezit van Italiaanse Crociani-familie op Curaçao mag van rechter worden verkocht
  • De Crociani's ruziën al jaren met BNP Paribas over een claim van $100 mln
  • Curaçaos trustkantoor United Trust heeft 'geen enkele relatie meer' met Camilla Crociani
Een Italiaanse prinses met zakelijke belangen in Nederland heeft het onderspit gedolven bij diverse rechtbanken in een langslepend conflict met zakenbank BNP Paribas.