Dominican Republic Votes for President

Dominican Republic Votes for President

The Dominican Republic will go to the polls this Friday May 16, 2008 to elect their president.Some 5.7 million people are registered to vote in the 12,754 polling booths set up across the country and the 321 that will be functioning outside the DR.

Elections for president and vice president for 2008-2012 will get underway on Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. These are the 13th elections to be held in the country since the democratic opening that followed the abolition of the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in 1961.

Having completed its organizational calendar for the upcoming elections with no major incidents, the Central Electoral Board (JCE) is proceeding with its duties of controlling the 154 electoral stations that are spread out around the country as well as the 17 Logistics Coordinating Offices abroad. In the latter, 154,797 people are registered to vote.

There are seven candidates running for president of the Dominican Republic. In the first position on the ballot is the name of incumbent President Leonel Fernández who is seeking reelection for his party, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and its 11 allies. Miguel Vargas Maldonado is running from the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD); Amable Aristy Castro of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC); Eduardo Estrella of the Social Democratic Revolutionary Party; Guillermo Moreno of the Independent Movement of Unity and Change (MIUCA); Pedro de Jesús Candelier of the Popular Alliance Party (PAP) and Trajano Santana of the Revolutionary Independent Party (PRI).

Of the entire Dominican electorate, 19.7% are registered in the province of Santo Domingo, making the nation’s capital, the National District, the location with the highest concentration of voters.

Voting Rounds

In keeping with the electoral law, if none of the candidates receives 50% plus one vote, a second round of voting will take place on June 30 between the two candidates who have received the highest number of votes. In the eventuality of a second round of voting, the candidate who receives a simple majority of votes will be declared the winner.

Absentee Voting

The United States is the country with the most Dominicans eligible to vote from abroad with 96,785 followed by Spain with 31,354, Puerto Rico with 11,311, Saint Martin with 2,984, Venezuela with 2,570, Italy with 2,347 and Panama with 2,075.
There are also voting stations in Switzerland where 1,964 Dominicans can vote; Canada has 1,135 registered voters and 903 in Holland.

The 154,797 voters registered abroad represent a 195% increase from the numbers registered by the electoral board in 2004.

In the 2004 elections the candidate who received the most absentee votes from abroad was current President Leonel Fernández who received 73.70% of the votes. Then President Hipólito Mejía of the PRD received 22.33% and the PRSC candidate Eduardo Estrella had won 3.37%.

Observers

Approximately 4,300 national and international observers will participate in the voting process, in keeping with Central Electoral Board (JCE) regulations. The JCE invited nearly 200 representatives from Latin American electoral organizations as well as Spanish legislators.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has sent a mission of 50 observers who have spent various weeks in the country gathering information and evaluating the different phases of the process. They have also met with the candidates.

Citizen Participation, a civilian organization, makes up the majority of national observers with a presence of 4,123 people who will be stationed at the various schools where voting will take place all around the country.

The Candidates

Leonel Fernández. Current president of the Dominican Republic, an attorney, 55, is seeking his third term in office from the Dominican Liberation Party (PRD) and its 11 allies. His first term in office was 1996-2000. He returned again to run in 2004 and won a record-breaking victory with 57% of the vote when Dominicans gave him a clear mandate to retake the reins of government.

Miguel Vargas Maldonado. Civil Engineer and former Secretary of State for Public Works, is running for president for the first time with the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) which he has led for the last several decades. He has served in the former government of Hipólito Mejía with whom he also served as chief of finances for his reelection campaign. He was also director of the Dominican Corporation for Aqueducts and Sewer Systems of Santo Domingo (CAASD) during the PRD administration of Salvador Jorge Blanco.

Amable Aristy Castro. In this, his third presidential bid with the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC), he seeks to take another step in his extensive political career which includes serving in the senate of the province of Altagracia on various occasions as well as secretary general of the Dominican Municipal League where he is currently serving. At 59, he recently earned as law degree at the University of the Third Age (Universidad de la Tercera Edad).

Eduardo Estrella. Presidential candidate for the second consecutive time, this engineer from Santiago made a political career in the PRSC and now aspires to the presidency for the Social Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRSD). In his first try as candidate in 2004, he obtained 8.14% of the votes. He renounced the PRSC in July of 2007 after losing internal electio ns which gave the candidacy to Aristy Castro. Months later, he allied himself with the PRSD, founded by Hatuey Decamps when he left the PRD and who is running with Estrella as vice-presidential candidate.

Guillermo Moreno. An attorney with civil advocacy groups, is running president for the first time with the Independent Movement of Unity and Change (MIUCA). His major experience wa s gained in his work with the government of Leonel Fernández’s who appointed him Fiscal Prosecutor of the National District. Soon after, he left that post and concentrated on his academic work until deciding to become actively involved in partisan politics and accepted a post with the self-described leftist organization. His wife, a well-know lawyer, Aura Celeste Fernández, is a judge in the JCE.

Pedro de Jesús Candelier. The former general, 57, of the National Army is running for the first time on the Popular Alliance Party (PAP) platform. His political profile, which boasts a promise to govern the country with a “strong hand”, is in keeping with his past role as police chief. Although he became known as a leader of one of the country’s environmental organizations in the 1990s during Joaquín Balaguer’s presidency, he reaffirmed his power during the first presidency of Leonel Fernández when he became the chief of the National Police. Later, when Hipólito Mejía assumed power, Candelier remained the head of the National Police, reaffirming his strategy to combat crime with measures that were considered repressive by international organizations.

Trajano Santano. This attorney by profession aspires to the president’s office with the Independent Revolutionary Party (PRI). Having made his career in the PRD, especially in the National Student Front (FREN), which was the student wing of the organization in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo where he did his university studies. He also carried out political activities in sports and neighborhood clubs. He was the leader of the political project headed by the late former PRD president Jacob o Majluta.