Sawt Falasteen - Seeking to change its fortunes, oil-rich Suriname votes

The smallest country in South America, and the only one with Dutch as its official language, is battling high debt, rampant inflation, and poverty affecting nearly one in five of its 600,000 inhabitants.

But recent offshore crude discoveries suggest this may all be about to change.

On Sunday, Surinamese will elect a new parliament of 51 members, who within weeks must choose a new president and vice-president to run the country for the next five years.

Incumbent leader Chan Santokhi is constitutionally eligible for a second term, but with no single party in a clear lead, pollsters are not picking any favorites.

Whoever does take the reins will have an awesome opportunity.

Experts say Suriname stands to make billions of dollars in the next 10 to 20 years from recently discovered offshore crude deposits.

Last year, French group TotalEnergies announced a $10.5 billion project to exploit an oil field off Suriname's coast with an estimated capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day.

Production should start in 2028, and the country has created a sovereign wealth fund similar to that of Norway to put money aside for tough times.

- 'Royalties for everyone' -

Fourteen parties are taking part in Sunday's election, including Santokhi's centrist Progressive Reform Party (VHP), and the leftist National Democratic Party (NDP) of deceased former coup leader and autocrat turned elected president Desi Bouterse.

Also in the running is the center-left General Liberation and Development Party (APOB) of Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk, a former guerrilla who rebelled against Bouterse's regime in the 1980s.

Santokhi enters the race while coming under fire for austerity measures and tax hikes implemented as part of restructuring required by the International Monetary Fund.

In a move rejected as political opportunism by critics, the president recently announced a program of "Royalties for Everyone" from the expected oil and gas boon.

It would entail an initial payment of $750 for every citizen into a savings account with a seven percent interest rate, starting with elderly and disabled people.

"Everyone shall benefit from this opportunity and no one will be left behind," the president vowed last November.

"You are co-owners of the oil incomes."

- 50 Years of independence -

Suriname, a diverse country made up of descendants of people from India, Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, Indigenous groups and African slaves, will mark its 50th anniversary of independence from the Dutch throne in November.

Since independence, it has looked increasingly towards China as a political ally and trading partner and was one of the first Latin American countries, in 2019, to join the Asian giant's Belt and Road infrastructure drive.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a stopover in Suriname in March on a Latin American tour aimed at countering China's growing influence in the region.

According to Giovanna Montenegro, a Latin American expert at the Binghamton University in New York, "the United States has overlooked Suriname as a strategic partner in South America and the Caribbean."

More than 90 percent of the country is covered in forests, and it is one of few in the world with a negative carbon footprint.

C.Hamad--SF-PST