Dominican Republic - Elections - 2020s
In May 2015, the National Revisory Assembly, composed of senators and deputies, adopted constitutional amendments to allow consecutive re-election to the presidency, as was the case before 2010. The amendments prohibit a President from serving a third term, and the outgoing President Medina had thus been ineligible to stand for a new term. After the 2016 general elections, the Dominican authorities launched an electoral reform process that culminated in two laws: Law 33-18 on Parties, Coalitions, and Political Movements, promulgated in August 2018; and Law 15-19, the Organic Electoral Regime, passed in February 2019.The objective of the first of these laws was to regulate the right of all citizens to form political parties, coalitions, and movements by setting new rules for their establishment and operation. The law introduced requirements for joining and leaving political parties, new requirements for filing to be a candidate, caps on campaign spending, and regulations on revenue sources. It also regulated the distribution and use of public funding of parties13 and established new sanctions14 for violators.
Regarding Law 15-19, the Organic Electoral Regime, it included new provisions on and changes to the electoral system. Some of the changes included prohibiting candidate transfuguismo [switching party affiliation] and changing the times at which the polls opened and closed. The law also authorized the Central Electoral Board to move progressively toward making the voting process electronic, in consultation with political parties.
Election - 2020 - Local
On 16 February 2020 the nationwide electoral process was suspended due to a glitch in the electronic voting system, four hours after they officially started. The Dominican Republic’s Central Electoral Board (JCE) announced that the municipal elections suspended on Feb. 16 will be held on March 15 with only paper ballots to avoid issues with the electronic votes.
The opposition parties denounced the suspension and delegates to the JCE from the Modern Revolutionary (PRM), People's Force (FP) and Christian Social Reform (PRSC) parties suggested that the Organization of American States (OAS) should intervene to help that the parties achieve a consensus and that they can set a new date for municipal elections.
The electronic system was used in 18 of the 158 municipalities and focused on cities and regions with high population density, accounting for 62.4 percent of the electorate. Paper ballots were due to be used elsewhere. The Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ramon Peralta urged for the municipal elections to be called “as soon as possible to prevent the country from falling into chaos and guaranteed that the Executive will seek the necessary resources to hold these elections.”
The municipal elections took place in a complex health context. On March 1, the Dominican authorities confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in the country. On March 11, only four days before the vote, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the illness a pandemic. On March 19, four days after the special municipal election, the government declared a state of emergency across the country’s territory as a result of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Given this health context, the JCE decided to postpone the elections for president, senators, and deputies scheduled for May 17, rescheduling them for July 5. Due to the postponement of the elections, the post-electoral phase of the municipal elections overlapped with the pre-electoral phase of the general elections. Consequently, the workload was excessive for the bodies of the electoral system— particularly the JCE and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE)—which had to deal with matters related to both processes at the same time.
A total of 7,487,040 Dominicans were once again be called to the polls to elect 158 mayors, the same number of vice mayors, 1,164 councilors and their alternates, 235 directors and deputy directors and 735 members, who will take office on April 24 for a period of four years. These elections are decisive both for the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), which together with its allies controls 107 of the 158 mayors, as well as for the opposition Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which is leading 30, including the of the National District, the center of the capital.
Election - 2020 - National
The Dominican Republic has a poor record on corruption, ranking 137th out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption index. It has been particularly key issue in this election cycle after protests in recent years over the involvement of some local officials in a Latin America-wide fraud scandal involving the Brazilian construction Odebrecht. The corporate giant has admitted to doling out $92m in bribes in the Domincan Republic in exchange for winning public works contracts.
For the 2020 electoral cycle, the two major political parties in the Dominican Republic — the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) — opted to hold primaries, which they did simultaneously on Sunday, October 6, 2019. The primaries made it possible for both parties to select their candidates, both for the general elections and for the municipal elections. However, public attention focused mainly on the election of those who would be competing for the presidency. For the Modern Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Moderno), the winner was Luis Abinader, while the winner of the Dominican Liberation Party (Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, PLD) primary was Gonzalo Castillo.
The 2020 elections were initially scheduled for 17 May but were postponed to 5 July due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Election campaigning was low profile, without the mass meetings and street caravans that had been common in previous years. The PRM and Mr. Abinader (who tested positive for COVID-19 in June) ran on a platform of increasing the focus on health, anti-corruption and human rights, among other issues.
Most of the polling stations were staffed by the appointed lead officers. Again, there was a high percentage of women serving as polling station officers. In addition, high numbers of party monitors were in attendance during the course of Election Day, particularly from the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and the People’s Strength Party (FP). In some cases, both lead and alternate monitors were present at the same time, which meant large numbers of people in the vicinity of the ballot booths. Mention must be made of the efforts to comply with the health measures imposed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Almost all the polling places visited were equipped with disinfectant products, face masks, gloves, and wet wipes, in addition to instructions for voters to keep their distance once inside the facilities. Outside the voting centers, however, there were crowds of people not observing physical distancing rules.
The election campaigning was unlike any other in the tourist-magnet Caribbean republic's history, overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the country's population of 10 million hard. The Republic - which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti - has registered more than 34,000 infections from the coronavirus, with more than 800 deaths. The outbreak forced Medina's government to declare a national lockdown, banning large public gatherings and shutting borders - a massive economic blow to one of the strongest growing economies in the region. The state of emergency was lifted only this week as parties made a final drive for votes.
The Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the Extraordinary General Presidential, Senatorial and Deputation Elections in the Dominican Republic arrived June 29, 2020 in Santo Domingo to begin the field observation tasks for elections on Sunday, July 5. Specialists in women's political participation, political financing, electoral justice, and other members of the Mission who carry out support tasks are working from their home countries.
Voters in the Dominican Republic were set to defy rising coronavirus infections to choose a new president in an election that could end 16 years of unbroken rule by the center-left Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). In the elections 05 July 2020, the people will elect the new president and vice president, 32 senators, and 190 Members of Parliament for the 2020-2024 period.
The presidential candidates weare Gonzalo Castillo from the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Luis Abinader from the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Leonel Fernandez representing the People's Force (FP), Guillermo Moreno from Alianza Pais (AlPais), Juan Cohen from the National Citizen's Will Party (PNVC), and Ismael Reyes from the Institutional Democratic Party (PDI).
Opposition candidate Luis Abinader is favorite in the election, having taken a commanding lead in opinion polls despite being forced to abandon his campaign after he tested positive for COVID-19. Abinader, a 52-year-old businessman, recovered sufficiently to close out his campaign at a rally on 01 July 2020.
PLD party's Gonzalo Castillo, a former public works minister, is standing for the PLD because outgoing President Danilo Medina cannot seek another term under the Republic's constitution.
A Gallup poll gives Abinader, from the opposition Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) more than 53 percent of voter intentions, 20 points ahead of the ruling PLD party's Gonzalo Castillo. Another poll gives Abinader a slimmer 12 point margin. Former president Leonel Fernandez, 66, trails in third place with 8.6 percent. Fernandez ruled for a total of three four-year terms between 1996 and 2012. Three other candidates are contesting the presidency from minor parties. If none of the six presidential candidates receive more than 50 percent of the votes, the two applicants with the majority of votes will go to the second round of elections on July 26.
On 05 July 2020 the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), led by Mr. Luis Abinader, won an outright majority in the 32-member Senate and became the largest force in the 190-member Chamber of Deputies. President Danilo Medina’s Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), which endorsed Mr. Gonzalo Castillo as its presidential candidate (see note), came second. The PRM’s electoral ally, the People’s Force (FP, a splinter party of the PLD led by former President Leonel Fernández) took a handful of seats in both chambers. Mr. Abinader (PRM) won the presidential election held in parallel with the parliamentary polls, thereby ending the PLD’s 16-year rule. On 16 August, Mr. Abinader was sworn in as the new President.
The 53-year-old businessman, Luis Abinader, had never held elected office. With about 60% of the votes counted, Luis Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) had 53% of the votes. The candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party, Gonzalo Castillo, was in second place with 37% of the votes. After 16 years, the center-left Dominican Liberation Party is out of the power in the Caribbean country. The new president, Luis Abinader, a businessman turned politician, was sworn in 17 August 2020. He had finished second in the 2016 presidential election.
Now, he will lead a country plagued by corruption, a fragile economy, and the coronavirus epidemic. A trained economist who studied at Harvard and Dartmouth College in the United States, his family are hotel owners and work in tourism. It`s a major industry and significant money earner in the Dominican Republic and has been very hard hit by the Pandemic. The country has been lambasted by Covid with the current Government being criticized for not encouraging lockdown early enough and of restarting normal life too soon.
One of the main factors contributing to the delays and litigiousness in the post-election phase was the counting of the preferential vote and calculations using the D’Hondt seat allocation method. Although the presidential election ballots were counted swiftly and the results were known soon afterward, this was not the case with the vote for the Senate and, particularly, for the Chamber of Deputies. It was not until July 17, twelve days after the election, that the JCE published the final Chamber of Deputies results.
The Constitution stipulates that the TSE is the highest authority for electoral disputes. That authority, however, has been curtailed in recent times through an excessively restrictive interpretation of its legally established powers. Thus, the Constitutional Court has repeatedly ruled that reviewing the JCE’s administrative actions is the responsibility of the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), ignoring the fact that the JCE’s actions are formally administrative but materially electoral.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
