Simons is elected as the first female president of Suriname by the Suriname Parliament

Suriname's Parliament backed Jennifer Simons, the country's first female president, on Sunday. This comes six weeks after both the former ruling party's and the top opposition's legislative seats were nearly equalled.

The National Democratic Party, led by Simons, won 18 seats. Chan Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party, the current president of the country's parliament won 17 seats. The remaining 16 seats were won by smaller parties.

Ashwin Adhin, parliament speaker, said that Simons would soon become the country's first woman president. The lawmakers applauded their approval of Simons' election. Suriname is a former Dutch-colony that has been independent since 1975. It's on the brink of an oil boom predicted by many, but the campaigning was largely silent about how the new government will spend the money.

Simons' election was agreed by six parties two days after the parliamentary elections, but it was only made official with Sunday's votes. Her inauguration date is July 16.

Simons was voted in by the Suriname parliament as vice-president, along with Gregory Rusland, leader of the National Party of Suriname. Simons was a doctor who served as speaker of the parliament for 10 years, until 2020. She came in second place behind Santokhi with more than 41.700 votes. She is the leader of the NDP founded by the former president Desi Bouterse who dominated Surinamese political for decades, but died as a fugitive in 2013.

(source: Reuters)