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1987 Surinamese general election

Field	Value
country	Suriname
previous_election	[1977](1977-surinamese-general-election)
next_election	[1991](1991-surinamese-general-election)
election_date	25 November 1987
election_name	1987 Surinamese general election
seats_for_election	51 seats in the National Assembly
majority_seats	26
turnout	84.96%
party1	VHP–NPS–KTPI
leader1	Pretaap Radhakishun
percentage1	85.50
seats1	40
last_election1	30
party2	National Democratic Party (Suriname)
leader2	Jules Wijdenbosch
percentage2	9.29
seats2	3
last_election2	new
party3	Progressive Workers' and Farmers' Union
leader3	Errol Alibux
percentage3	1.69
seats3	4
last_election3	0
party4	Pertjajah Luhur
leader4	Paul Somohardjo
percentage4	1.55
seats4	4
last_election4	4
map	1987 Surinamese general election - Results by district.svg
map_caption	Results by district
title	Prime Minister
before_election	Jules Wijdenbosch
before_party	National Democratic Party (Suriname)
after_election	Jules Wijdenbosch
after_party	National Democratic Party (Suriname)

General elections were held in Suriname on 25 November 1987. They were the first held in the country since the first post-independence elections in 1977, and the first since a new constitution was approved in a referendum held a month earlier.

The Front for Democracy and Development, an alliance of the National Party of Suriname (NPS), the Progressive Reform Party (VHP) and the Party for National Unity and Solidarity (KTPI), won a decisive victory with 40 of the 51 seats with 86% of the vote, the largest vote share achieved by a Surinamese party or alliance since independence in 1975. The National Democratic Party, the political vehicle of Desi Bouterse, the country's de facto leader since a 1980 coup, finished a distant second with three seats. Voter turnout was 85%.

Results

Aftermath

At its first session on 13 January 1988, the National Assembly elected the VHP's Ramsewak Shankar as president. Henck Arron of the NPS, who had led the country as Prime Minister from independence in 1975 until the 1980 coup, became vice president. Their election was assured after the Front for Democracy and Development won 78 percent of the seats at the election. This was enough for Shankar to be elected without the need for support from other blocs; the new constitution required the president to be elected by a two-thirds supermajority of the Assembly. To date, this is the only time under Suriname's present constitution that a party or alliance has won enough seats on its own to elect a president.

However, Shankar and Arron only held office for less than two years before being overthrown in 1990 in another coup engineered by Bouterse.

Notes

References

[[Dieter Nohlen]] (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p614 {{ISBN. 978-0-19-928357-6
Nohlen, p620
Nohlen, p622
(January 13, 1988). "A Civilian President Named in Suriname To End Army Rule". [[Reuters]].
(27 December 1990). "Suriname Coup Leaders Had Power Already".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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