Chandrikapersad "Chan" Santokhi is a Surinamese politician and former police officer who is the 9th president of Suriname, since 2020.
16 Facts About Chan Santokhi
2.
Chandrikapersad Santokhi was born on 3 February 1959, into an Indo-Surinamese Hindu family in Lelydorp, in district Suriname.
3.
Chan Santokhi grew up in the countryside as the youngest in a family of nine children.
4.
Chan Santokhi's father worked at the harbor of Paramaribo and his mother worked as a shop assistant in Lelydorp.
5.
Since the age of 23, Chan Santokhi worked as a police inspector in Geyersvlijt and Wanica until he was appointed in 1989 as head of the national criminal investigation department.
6.
In September, 2005, Chan Santokhi was sworn in as Minister of Justice and Police on behalf of the Progressive Reform Party.
7.
Bouterse said on 26 November 2007, four days before the commencement of the trial, that Chan Santokhi wanted to "imprison and kill him".
8.
Bouterse adduced that numerous previous attempts to "take him out" all failed and warned Chan Santokhi to be cautious with his "intentions to eliminate Bouterse".
9.
On 10 September 2008, Chan Santokhi sued Bouterse for insult, slander and defamation, because Bouterse had alleged that Chan Santokhi had ties to drug dealers and other criminals.
10.
In 2009, Chan Santokhi was, for one year, the vice-president of this organization.
11.
On 3 July 2011, Chan Santokhi was elected as chairman of the Vooruitstrevende Hervormings Partij.
12.
On 26 May 2020, the preliminary results of the 2020 Surinamese general election showed that the VHP was the largest party, and that Chan Santokhi was the most likely candidate to become the ninth President of Suriname.
13.
Chan Santokhi took his oath reciting Hindu Sanskrit shlokas and mantras in his oath ceremony.
14.
In September 2021, Chan Santokhi visited the Netherlands and became the first Surinamese president to do so since 2008, after diplomatic relations between the two countries had cooled down.
15.
On 19 July 2020, Chan Santokhi married his long-term partner, Mellisa Seenacherry.
16.
Chan Santokhi has two adult children from a previous marriage.