ABOP voted for 2017 budget in non-traditional manner

The General Liberation and Development Party (ABOP) did not vote in the traditional manner for the 2017 budget on Tuesday. MP Marinus Bee (ABOP) and MP Dinotha Vorswijk (ABOP) reportedly voted in favor of budgets of 8 ministries while they voted against the rest. The ABOP faction has thereby made it clear that it has chosen to follow its own path instead of the path of the coalition or the opposition. “We want to get rid of the traditional way of thinking that one can only choose one or the other. In these times we must have a new way of thinking which is why ABOP has decided to set a good example by changing the way legislators handle the budget and the situation in the country,” MP Marinus Bee (ABOP) told Times of Suriname. MP Bee made it clear that the ABOP does not have to answer to the other factions in parliament. “People also do not have to think that the ABOP still wants to work with the NDP and be part of the government because that is not the case.” The ABOP reportedly voted in favor of the budgets of the Ministry of Regional Development, the Foreign Affairs (Buza) Ministry, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Education, Science & Culture, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Environmental Planning, Land and Forest Management and the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs. “We saw several good things that are included in the budgets of these ministries and if they are actualized they will benefit the people and be a big help to social groups and hinterland residents in particular. That is why the ABOP decided not to stick to the traditional way of thinking but to also give the government the chance to do those things so that the people could benefit from it,” said MP Bee.