Suriname Elects New President to Navigate Its Impending Oil Boom
Suriname is heading to the polls in an election that will help shape how the South American country adapts to its newfound oil wealth.
President Chandrikapersad Santokhi is seeking a second five-year term on Sunday against four other candidates. But it's shaping up to be a two-way battle between the incumbent Progressive Reform Party and the left-leaning National Democratic Party, led by Jennifer Geerlings-Simons.
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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Petition to make city attorney an elected position fails in Grover Beach
A petition to make the role of city attorney an elected position in Grover Beach came up short on Wednesday when the petitioners failed to submit any signatures by the deadline. In August, citizens grassroots group GroverH2O filed a notice of intent to circulate a petition to make the role of city attorney elected, with a 180-day window to collect enough valid signatures by June 4 kicking off on Dec. 7. The petition sought to put the issue of an elected city attorney on the November 2026 ballot, and would have required valid signatures from 10% of the city's registered voters — or a minimum of 811 people — by the June 4 deadline. But as of Wednesday, the city had not received any signature submissions from the proponents, bringing the issue to a close for the time being, according to city manager Matt Bronson. The Tribune reached out to GroverH2O for comment but did not receive a reply as of Friday afternoon. In the past year, GroverH2O has succeeded in gathering enough signatures to get an initiative asking voters if the role of city clerk should be elected rather than appointed, with the issue set to appear on the November 2026 ballot. Grover H2O was also successful in raising enough signatures to get a recall campaign on the November 2024 ballot against District 2 Councilmember Dan Rushing for his vote to raise water and wastewater rates to pay for Grover Beach's share of the now-defunct Central Coast Blue water recycling project. During the recall petition process, city clerk Wendi Sims initially denied Grover H2O's recall petition, contesting the factual accuracy of several of the group's stated reasons to start the petition. The dispute over the recall petition's content led to Grover H2O's lawsuit against the city, which was represented by Lozano Smith attorney Robert Lomeli. In April, attorney Stew Jenkins, speaking on behalf of Grover H2O, said that the efforts to make both the city attorney and city clerk elected are a response to the city's handling of Grover H2O's petitions. 'The appointed Grover Beach city attorney firm has violated the public interest by impairing access to city records, authorizing closed City Council meetings, been complicit in impairing voters' right to circulate and file petitions for recall in violation of California's Constitution and election law, filed appeal of a Superior Court ruling ordering certification of recall without prior City Council approval, has contracts with cities and districts all over California, and charges the City of Grover Beach for part-time civil work more than the state of California pays the attorney general for full-time representation in civil and criminal matters,' GroverH2O's notice of intent said. 'The voters find that the office of appointed city attorney shall be immediately terminated for cause, as against the public interest.' In their statement of reasons to launch the petition included in the initial notice of intent, petitioners argued that the city's current legal representation from firm Lozano Smith also risks a potential conflict of interest becuase they represent multiple government municipalities, though assistant city manager Kristin Eriksson said the firm's other government contracts are all outside of San Luis Obispo County. In California, only around 11 of 482 municipalities have elected city attorneys, with most serving larger cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego due to their population size, according to a 2013 League of California Cities guidebook for new city attorneys. In an email, Eriksson said the city doesn't know how many valid signatures were collected by GroverH2O in the 180-day window because no petition was submitted. Eriksson said the city has not received any further communications with the group on further attempts to make the city attorney an elected position. 'Because they did not submit the requisite signatures on the initial petition, they would have to start the process over by first submitting a new Notice of Intent,' Eriksson said.
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Washington Post
Bolivia reinstates a leftist challenger but keeps former leader Morales off the ballot
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia's electoral tribunal on Friday included leftist Senate leader Andrónico Rodríguez on the list of presidential candidates approved for the ballot but excluded the powerful former socialist leader Evo Morales — the other major thorn in the president's side. As tensions escalate in the run-up to Bolivia's Aug. 17 elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reinstated Rodríguez, a 36-year-old political upstart with close ties to Morales and roots in the ex-president's rural coca-growing stronghold, weeks after suspending his candidacy on technical grounds in a decision that shocked many Bolivians . 'We are the candidate of the people,' Rodríguez said in a speech welcoming the revival of his campaign. 'Our primary concern has been to wage the legal battle, and in the end, the power of the people had to prevail.' With the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, riven by dysfunction and division over President Luis Arce's power struggle with his former mentor , Morales, supporters of the senate leader see him as the only chance for MAS to beat the right-wing opposition and salvage its decades-long political dominance. President Arce, widely blamed for accelerating Bolivia's worst economic crisis in 40 years, dropped out of the race last month. Opinion polls show that his pick for the presidency, senior minister Eduardo del Castillo, has inherited the president's unpopularity. Arce's government insists that its main rival, Morales, is constitutionally barred from running. Morales accuses Arce of waging a 'judicial war' against him. In leaving out Morales, the tribunal opened the potential for further turmoil: Morales has called on his supporters to take to the streets to demand his eligibility. Over the last week his followers have blockaded some of the main roads around the country, adding to a sense of crisis as merchants and truckers rise up in outrage over surging food prices and severe fuel shortages. Morales, who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, has been holed up in the country's tropics for months , surrounded by fiercely loyal coca-farmers, as Arce's government seeks his arrest on charges relating to his sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. A constitutional court filled with judges beholden to Arce has disputed the legality of Morales' fourth candidacy and barred him from the contest. 'The constitutional court acts like a sniper ... restricting and enabling electoral participation upon request,' he said in response to his disqualification. 'The order is clear: Hand over the government to the right and legitimize the election with negotiated candidates who will protect their backs.' Morales, whose own loyalists packed the same court when he was president, points to an earlier court ruling that paved the way for his 2019 presidential campaign, that said it would violate his human rights to stop him running. Morales' bid that year for an unprecedented fourth term ultimately sparked mass protests and led to his resignation and brief self-exile. The conservative opposition to MAS is also fractured, with at least three right-of-center candidates vying for the presidency and no clear frontrunner. All of them are little-known abroad but well-known within Bolivia, where they have run for president or served in government in the past: Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga, former president from 2001-2002, Samuel Doria Medina, a former cement tycoon and planning minister, and Manfred Reyes Villa, the mayor of Bolivia's major central city of Cochabamba. Quiroga and Doria Medina promoted privatizations of state-run companies in the 1990s before MAS took over.
Associated Press
12 hours ago
- Associated Press
Bolivia reinstates a leftist challenger but keeps former leader Morales off the ballot
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's electoral tribunal on Friday included leftist Senate leader Andrónico Rodríguez on the list of presidential candidates approved for the ballot but excluded the powerful former socialist leader Evo Morales — the other major thorn in the president's side. As tensions escalate in the run-up to Bolivia's Aug. 17 elections, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal reinstated Rodríguez, a 36-year-old political upstart with close ties to Morales and roots in the ex-president's rural coca-growing stronghold, weeks after suspending his candidacy on technical grounds in a decision that shocked many Bolivians. 'We are the candidate of the people,' Rodríguez said in a speech welcoming the revival of his campaign. 'Our primary concern has been to wage the legal battle, and in the end, the power of the people had to prevail.' With the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, riven by dysfunction and division over President Luis Arce's power struggle with his former mentor, Morales, supporters of the senate leader see him as the only chance for MAS to beat the right-wing opposition and salvage its decades-long political dominance. President Arce, widely blamed for accelerating Bolivia's worst economic crisis in 40 years, dropped out of the race last month. Opinion polls show that his pick for the presidency, senior minister Eduardo del Castillo, has inherited the president's unpopularity. Arce's government insists that its main rival, Morales, is constitutionally barred from running. Morales accuses Arce of waging a 'judicial war' against him. In leaving out Morales, the tribunal opened the potential for further turmoil: Morales has called on his supporters to take to the streets to demand his eligibility. Over the last week his followers have blockaded some of the main roads around the country, adding to a sense of crisis as merchants and truckers rise up in outrage over surging food prices and severe fuel shortages. Morales, who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, has been holed up in the country's tropics for months, surrounded by fiercely loyal coca-farmers, as Arce's government seeks his arrest on charges relating to his sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl. A constitutional court filled with judges beholden to Arce has disputed the legality of Morales' fourth candidacy and barred him from the contest. 'The constitutional court acts like a sniper ... restricting and enabling electoral participation upon request,' he said in response to his disqualification. 'The order is clear: Hand over the government to the right and legitimize the election with negotiated candidates who will protect their backs.' Morales, whose own loyalists packed the same court when he was president, points to an earlier court ruling that paved the way for his 2019 presidential campaign, that said it would violate his human rights to stop him running. Morales' bid that year for an unprecedented fourth term ultimately sparked mass protests and led to his resignation and brief self-exile. The conservative opposition to MAS is also fractured, with at least three right-of-center candidates vying for the presidency and no clear frontrunner. All of them are little-known abroad but well-known within Bolivia, where they have run for president or served in government in the past: Jorge 'Tuto' Quiroga, former president from 2001-2002, Samuel Doria Medina, a former cement tycoon and planning minister, and Manfred Reyes Villa, the mayor of Bolivia's major central city of Cochabamba. Quiroga and Doria Medina promoted privatizations of state-run companies in the 1990s before MAS took over.
