PARAMARIBO - Suriname's ruling party and its top opposition rival won almost the same number of parliamentary seats in an election on Sunday, setting the stage for complex coalition negotiations that will determine who becomes the country's next president.

The South American nation is on the cusp of a predicted oil boom, but campaigning for the ballot featured little debate about what the next government, which will hold power until 2030, should do with the income.

With 43 polling stations yet to be counted, results showed the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) - founded by former President Desi Bouterse, who dominated Surinamese politics for decades but died a fugitive last year - had won 18 seats, with 79,544 votes.

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The ruling Progressive Reform Party (VHP) of current President Chan Santokhi won 17 seats, with 75,983.

Smaller parties, now potential kingmakers, won the remaining 16 of 51 total seats.

An unknown number of votes from the uncounted polling stations remained to be added to the tally as of early Monday. Turnout so far was 58 percent of about 400,000 eligible voters.

Negotiations between parties to choose a president and cabinet ministers for the former Dutch colony, independent since 1975, were already expected to take weeks even prior to the tight result.

A two-thirds majority in parliament is required to elect the president.

First major offshore project

Santokhi, a 66-year-old former police commissioner who has campaigned to remain in office, won more votes than any other lawmaker, just under 40,000.

"We asked for a mandate and this is the mandate that the people have given. With that, we now have to move forward. It is up to us to have talks with other political parties based on this," Santokhi, who has not ruled out cooperation with any other party, told local newspaper the Suriname Herald.

The NDP is set to back its party head Jennifer Simons, a doctor who served as parliamentary speaker for a decade until 2020, for president.

Simons was second in vote tallies, winning 34,750 votes.

The NDP will not work with the VHP, NDP Vice-Chair Sergio Akiemboto told reporters late on Sunday.

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NDP founder Bouterse left office in 2020, the year after he was convicted in the 1982 murders of 15 government critics.

When the conviction was upheld in 2023, Bouterse went into hiding, dying at the age of 79 at an unknown location on Christmas Eve.

Suriname's first big offshore energy development, the Gran Morgu oil and gas project, is set to begin production in 2028.