Suriname’s Jennifer Simons joins ranks of CARICOM’s female trailblazers
Medical doctor and former parliamentary speaker Jennifer Simons Geerling was sworn in as the president of Suriname on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. She is the first female to do so and the fourth woman head of government currently in charge of a Caribbean Community nation.
Simons,71, took the oath of office at midday nearly two months after her then-main opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) won a majority of 18 of the 51 parliamentary seats, making it the largest single party in the Dutch-speaking republic of just over 600,000. Elections were held on May 25.
She has become president because she put together a six-party, multi-racial coalition that gave the grouping 34 of the 51, or two-thirds of the seats needed to directly elect a president. She now joins Mia Mottley of Barbados, Kamla Persad Bissessar of Trinidad, and Cora Richardson Hodge of associate member Anguilla as the female heads of government in the regional bloc.
Former President Chan Santokhi handed over the presidential sash to a smiling Simons during an extraordinary National Assembly sitting and immediately after signing the proclamation conferring her with the presidency. The new head of state and government also signed the document. Vice President Gregory Rusland, 65, had taken the oath of office earlier, and the power in a country that had lived through two past military coups was transferred seamlessly.
As coalition supporters celebrated her swearing in, President Simons took over government with the country preparing for transformation from an economy based on agriculture and extractive industries to one that will be dominated by oil and gas production starting in 2028
Like neighboring Guyana, Suriname has discovered large quantities of offshore oil and gas, with significant oil companies flocking to the republic for a piece of the sector. The local dollar has slid in value from US$7-1 to above 40 today, while locals are complaining about rising inflation.