Chan Santokhi

Chandrikapersad "Chan" Santokhi (Dutch: [tɕɑnˈdrikaːpɛrˌsɑt sɑnˈtɔki]; Sarnami: चंद्रिकापेर्साद संतोखी, pronounced [cⁿd̪rikɑːpərəsɑːd̪ə sⁿt̪oːkʰiː]; born 3 February 1959) is a Surinamese politician and former police officer who served as the ninth president of Suriname, from 2020 to 2025. After winning the 2020 elections, Santokhi was the sole nominee for president of Suriname. On 13 July, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation in an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 16 July.

Chandrikapersad Santokhi was born on 3 February 1959, into an Indo-Surinamese Hindu family in Lelydorp, in district Suriname (now known as district Wanica). He grew up in the countryside as the youngest in a family of nine children. His father worked at the harbor of Paramaribo and his mother worked as a shop assistant in Lelydorp.

After Santokhi obtained his VWO diploma at the Algemene Middelbare School in Paramaribo, he received a scholarship to study in the Netherlands. From 1978 till 1982, he studied at the Police Academy of the Netherlands in Apeldoorn. After completing his study he returned to Suriname in September 1982, to work for the police. Since the age of 23, Santokhi worked as a police inspector in Geyersvlijt and Wanica until he was appointed in 1989 as head of the national criminal investigation department. In 1991, he was appointed commissioner of police.

In September 2005, Santokhi was sworn in as Minister of Justice and Police on behalf of the Progressive Reform Party. His period in office was marked by a heavy crackdown on crime, in particular drug trafficking, and a strict, no-nonsense enforcement of law and order. This earned him the nickname sheriff, which he got from Dési Bouterse.

As police commissioner, Santokhi led the investigation of the December murders that happened at the start of his ministership so that the December murders trial could finally commence. For the exclusive purpose of the December murders trial, he had a heavily secured courtroom built in Domburg, Wanica. Because Santokhi was the driving force behind the trial, he became a much-discussed matter of the main suspect in that trial, Dési Bouterse. Bouterse said on 26 November 2007, four days before the commencement of the trial, that Santokhi wanted to "imprison and kill him". Bouterse adduced that numerous previous attempts to "take him out" all failed and warned Santokhi to be cautious with his "intentions to eliminate Bouterse". On 29 November 2019, the Court of Appeal reached a verdict in the December murders trial, and Bouterse had been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.

On 10 September 2008, Santokhi sued Bouterse for insult, slander and defamation, because Bouterse had alleged that Santokhi had ties to drug dealers and other criminals. On 23 September 2008, the court ruled that the allegations were unproven, ordered Bouterse to publish a rectification, and a penalty payment of SRD 100,000 for each day Bouterse failed to execute the sentence. The same day, Bouterse placed a rectification in De West where he admitted that the statements were untrue.

In the 2010 Surinamese general election, Santokhi received the highest number of votes after Bouterse, despite being placed relatively low on the party list of the Progressive Reform Party. In July of that year, he was appointed presidential candidate on behalf of the ruling political alliance New Front for Democracy and Development. Santokhi's opponent in the presidential elections was Bouterse. Since Bouterse (NDP) cooperated with Ronnie Brunswijk (ABOP) and Paul Somohardjo (PL), his political alliance had a total of 36 seats, while the New Front only had fourteen. Consequently, Bouterse was elected the eighth President of Suriname.

Santokhi, who for fifteen years was the official representative of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), was chosen on 6 December 2010, as president of this organization for one year. CICAD is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States, that coordinates the drug policy of the Western Hemisphere. In 2009, Santokhi was, also for one year, the vice-president of this organization.