Country profile
Suriname
Republiek Suriname
South America · Latin America and the Caribbean · Americas
SR · SUR
- Capital
- Paramaribo
- Population
- 616,500
- Area
- 163,820 km²
- Democracy index
- 71
- Regime type
- Fragmented Democracy
Events
Ballots from Suriname
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Suriname. Community totals are not official results.
No published ballots yet
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
71/100
Regime type
Fragmented Democracy
Suriname functions as a parliamentary democracy that maintains regular, competitive multi party elections, yet the political landscape is characterized by persistent economic volatility and deep institutional fatigue. While the transition of power remains peaceful and constitutional, the governance process is frequently hampered by fragmentation within the governing coalition, which complicates long term policy implementation and administrative accountability. The judiciary remains formally independent, but concerns regarding executive influence and the systemic challenge of political patronage networks often weaken the effective rule of law. Although civil society and the media operate with general freedom, the space for critical discourse is sometimes constrained by political pressure and the lingering influence of historical power structures. The nation faces ongoing struggles to consolidate its democratic institutions amidst economic instability and limited state capacity, resulting in a system that is functional but frequently susceptible to governance deadlock and political polarization.
Last evaluation:
How we classify regimes →World Factbook
Country background
A concise introduction to Suriname, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
The Spaniards first explored Suriname in the 16th century, and the English then settled it in the mid-17th century. Suriname became a Dutch colony in 1667. With the abolition of African slavery in 1863, workers were brought in from India and Java.
The Netherlands granted the colony independence in 1975. Five years later, the civilian government was replaced by a military regime that soon declared Suriname a socialist republic. It continued to exert control through a succession of nominally civilian administrations until 1987, when international pressure finally forced a democratic election.
In 1990, the military overthrew the civilian leadership, but a democratically elected government -- a four-party coalition -- returned to power in 1991. The coalition expanded to eight parties in 2005 and ruled until 2010, when voters returned former military leader Desire BOUTERSE and his opposition coalition to power. President BOUTERSE ran unopposed in 2015 and was reelected.
Opposition parties campaigned hard against BOUTERSE in the run-up to the 2020 elections, and a multi-party coalition led by Chandrikapersad SANTOKHI’s VHP and Ronnie Brunswijk’s ABOP was installed.