Suriname’s largest energy sector trade union, the Ogane Workers Organisation Suriname (OWOS), has confirmed that incumbent president Marciano Hellings and his “Renewable” faction have won a decisive victory in long-awaited internal union elections, capping a bitterly contested campaign that saw legal battles and a pre-election shooting that left one person injured.
Final vote counts released Thursday put Hellings’ ticket far ahead of the challenger faction Bondru, with 586 votes cast for Renewable compared to just 325 for Bondru. Even before ballots from the outlying districts of Nickerie, Coronie and Wageningen were processed, partial counting showed Hellings held an unassailable lead of more than 80% of counted votes, leaving no doubt about the final outcome. In a post-election statement, Hellings framed the result as a clear, unambiguous choice by union members to retain his leadership.
The lead-up to the vote was exceptionally tense, with multiple legal clashes between the two factions filed in court ahead of polling day. Tensions rose even higher just before voting opened when a shooting incident left one person wounded, deepening divisions between the two camps. Following the result, Bondru representatives have suggested that the shooting played a major role in their election defeat, claiming Hellings leveraged the incident in media coverage to falsely imply Bondru was linked to the attack, swaying last-minute voter sentiment.
Hellings has flatly rejected these accusations, noting that the challenger has provided no evidence to back up their claims. He argued that union members had already signaled widespread opposition to Bondru’s platform long before the shooting occurred. The incumbent framed the election result as a rejection of what he described as deliberate attempts to sow division within the union ranks.
Bondru also pointed to an unusual quirk of the final count: the faction needed the support of at least 20% of the union’s membership just to qualify as a candidate in the election, yet the final result showed even some members who had initially backed Bondru’s candidacy ultimately did not vote for the ticket. Despite the narrow margin and contentious campaign, however, Bondru has confirmed it will not contest the result through the courts, breaking the pattern of pre-election legal clashes. The faction says it will instead await the outcome of an ongoing police investigation into the pre-election shooting to clarify what exactly occurred, and will not make unsubstantiated accusations against the winning side.
In a conciliatory post-defeat statement, Bondru representatives emphasized that all members of both factions are colleagues at state-owned energy utility Energie Bedrijven Suriname (EBS), and will need to continue working alongside one another going forward. The faction even noted that the hard-fought campaign carried a silver lining: it allowed team members to gain a clearer understanding of one another’s strengths, leaving the door open to future collaboration within the union structure.
For his part, Hellings says his top priority now is healing the deep divisions opened up by the election campaign. He warned that fragmentation weakens the union’s bargaining power, and expressed personal regret over the rift with Bondru members, many of whom previously worked alongside him in union leadership. The newly re-elected administration’s immediate policy focus will be wrapping up ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations, which have dragged on longer than expected heading into September. After those talks conclude, the union will turn its attention to resolving the long-stalled issue of implementing a new salary structure for energy workers, a reform that Hellings says can no longer be delayed.
Members of the winning Renewable faction have echoed calls for reconciliation, acknowledging that harsh words and difficult moments marked the campaign, but arguing that it is time to close that chapter and refocus on the core mission of advocating for worker interests. A senior Renewable board member also reaffirmed the union’s commitment to maintaining a clear separation between union leadership and EBS corporate management, stating: “No management will sit in the union’s chair, and the union will not sit in management’s chair.”
In a final gesture of goodwill, Bondru officially congratulated Hellings and the incumbent leadership on their victory, and confirmed the faction accepts and respects the will of the union membership.