Supporters of political parties spend the night at NIS

Supporters of the National Party Suriname (NPS), the Progressive Reform Party (VHP), the General Liberation and Development Party (ABOP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP) on Tuesday night spent the night at the National Indoor Stadium (NIS) to keep an eye on the ballot boxes. They decided to spend the night because of several irregularities that had taken place when workers from polling stations delivered the ballot boxes to the sports hall. NIS which is formerly known as the Anthony Nesty Sports Hall is the location where the chairpersons of more than 270 polling stations from Paramaribo had to drop the ballot boxes off. The workers from the various polling stations were clearly exhausted. There was a little commotion when it became evident that several boxes that contained ballots had not been sealed. The fact that several chairpersons of certain polling stations had not presented their reports also resulted in commotion. The supporters from the political parties also started to complain about the fact that District Commissioner Mike Nerkust, chairman of the main polling station in Paramaribo, had not started counting the ballots and processing the reports. When these reports went viral, the supporters from the National Democratic Party (NDP) and ABOP flocked to NIS. “We came here to keep an eye on everything. Nobody gave us instructions,” said a group of NDP supporters. The chairman of ABOP, Ronnie Brunswijk, also visited NIS to assess the situation. “I can’t start until all of the polling stations of Paramaribo have delivered their ballot boxes. Several polling stations made their deliveries late because they were not finished with counting the ballots. One must keep in mind that the people have worked longer than 36 hours,” said DC Nerkust in response to the criticism. The DC explained that he and his team were too exhausted to continue the work. He also pointed out that the rumors regarding irregularities are not based on facts. The DC also explained that there are plenty of mechanisms to prevent irregularities. “The police, the military, local and international observers keep an eye on the entire process in the sports hall. There are also security cameras to monitor everything,” said DC Nerkust. Jennifer van Dijk-Silos, chairwoman at the Independent Election Bureau (OKB), explained that she dispatched an additional group of OKB observers to NIS after she had received word about the irregularities in NIS. It became clear that the members of the main polling station could not handle the huge flow of deliveries at that moment. The main polling station then decided to close its doors and after that many people started assembling outside. The chairwoman made it clear that people can’t commit fraud with the material that is delivered because the OKB has pictures of the entire process.