PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) - Suriname's ruling coalition appears to have survived a challenge from a former dictator's party, whose victory could have jeopardised millions of dollars in western aid to this former Dutch colony on the northern rim of South America, preliminary results showed yesterday.

But former dictator Desi Bouterse's National Democratic Party has more than doubled its seats in the National Assembly, strengthening the political clout of a man convicted of drug trafficking in the Netherlands and facing charges of ordering the killing of 15 dissidents in 1982.

President Ronald Venetiaan's New Front coalition, which has sought to stabilise Suriname's economy through spending cuts, has won at least 23 of the 51 seats in the National Assembly, a steep decline from the 33 seats in the outgoing government, according to preliminary results from the elections office.

Bouterse's party has won 15 seats, up from the seven it previously held.

Neither side appears to have won the 27 needed to choose the next president, opening the door for a showdown that could make kingmakers of smaller, mostly ethnic-based parties.

Among them are parties representing descendants of runaway slaves, known as Maroons, who won an unprecedented four seats in the first election in which they ran as a coalition. Its leader, former rebel commander Ronnie Brunswijk, fought Bouterse's regime in the '80s.

Former President Jules Wijdenbosch's People's Alliance for Development won six seats. Widjdenbosch, a former Bouterse ally, has not ruled out an alliance with the former dictator.

Another coalition of small parties won three seats.
The bauxite-rich country of 480,000 people has 330,000 registered voters and an estimated 74 per cent participated in Wednesday's elections. The count in seven of nine districts had been completed by yesterday morning, while in the capital Paramaribo, with 160,000 eligible voters, some 60 percent had been counted.

More preliminary results were expected later yesterday. Official results will be published in two weeks.
Bouterse, whose authoritative image had appealed to many young voters frustrated with the slow pace of Venetiaan's economic reforms, said he had expected his party to win more seats, but was happy with the outcome.

"We had made a slightly different prediction, but we cannot be unhappy," Bouterse said in an interview with the Suriname Television Foundation.

Bouterse's popularity comes despite his 1999 conviction in absentia for cocaine smuggling in The Netherlands and charges in Suriname for the 1982 killings. He denies wrongdoing in both cases.

The United States and The Netherlands, Suriname's biggest aid donors, had warned relations would suffer if Bouterse took power.

At stake was a 15-year, US$1.5-billion (euro1.2- billion) aid deal that The Netherlands and Suriname signed in 1975 when the former colony gained independence. The Netherlands has repeatedly suspended aid because of discontent with governments led by Bouterse or his party.

The first time was in 1982 when Bouterse's army rounded up 15 prominent critics - journalists, lawyers, politicians and union officials - and shot them one-by-one in Paramaribo's Fort Zeelandia.

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