Dominican Republic general election, 2016
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| Registered | 6,765,245 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 4,708,746 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Dominican Liberation Party |
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| Dominican Revolutionary Party |
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| Social Christian Reformist Party |
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| Minor parties |
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General elections were held in Dominican Republic on 15 May 2016 to elect a president, vice-president and the Congress, as well as 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament, municipal councils, mayors and vice mayors.[1][2] On 15 May 2015 Roberto Rosario, president of the Central Electoral Board, said that there would be about 4,300 seats up for election in the "most complex elections in history".[3]
Background
The previous parliamentary elections were held in 2010, and fresh elections would have usually been due in 2014 as Congress has a four-year term. However, in an effort to revert to the pre-1996 system and synchronize the dates of presidential and parliamentary and local elections in a single electoral year, the congressional term starting in 2010 was exceptionally extended to six years in order for the next congressional and municipal elections to be held alongside the next presidential elections due in 2016.
On 19 April 2015 the political committee of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party decided, without consensus, to amend the constitution to allow a president to be re-elected once, allowing incumbent President Danilo Medina to be presented for re-election, based on his high poll ratings.[4] This led to tensions between party members and leaders, especially amongst supporters of Leonel Fernandez who was a pre-candidate for the elections. There was also an impasse in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, where senators and representatives close to Fernandez stated that they would not vote in favour of the Act to Call the Revising National Assembly to amend the constitution.[5][6][7] After several weeks of internal disputes, the political committee, including Fernandez and Medina, agreed on 28 May to vote for the amendment.[8] The amendment passed the Chamber on June 2.[9]
Electoral system
The president was elected using the two-round system; if no candidate had received more than 50% plus 1 of the vote, a second-round runoff would have been held in June 2016. Presidents are limited to serving two consecutive terms of four years.
In the Congress, the 190 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected in three groups; 178 were elected using proportional representation from 32 multi-member constituencies based on the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional, with the number of seats based on the population of each province. A further seven were elected by proportional representation in a separate constituency for expatriates and five allocated nationally to parties that received at least 1% of the vote, with preference given to those that did not win any of the 178 constituency seats..[10] The 32 members of the Senate were elected from the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional using first-past-the-post voting.[11]
Voting was compulsory.[10]
Results
President
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danilo Medina | Dominican Liberation Party | 2,847,438 | 61.74 |
| Luis Abinader | Modern Revolutionary Party | 1,613,222 | 34.98 |
| Guillermo Moreno García | Country Alliance | 84,399 | 1.83 |
| Elías Wessin | Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party | 20,423 | 0.44 |
| Pelegrín Castillo | National Progressive Force | 16,283 | 0.35 |
| Minou Tavárez Mirabal | Alliance for Democracy | 16,256 | 0.35 |
| Hatuey de Camps | Revolutionary Social Democratic Party | 8,264 | 0.18 |
| Soraya Aquino | National Unity Party | 5,678 | 0.12 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 96,783 | – | |
| Total | 4,708,746 | 100 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,765,245 | 69.60 | |
| Source: JCE | |||
Congress
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | +/– | Senate | +/– | |||
| Dominican Liberation Party | 1,794,325 | 41.79 | 106 | +10 | 26 | –2 |
| Modern Revolutionary Party | 877,101 | 20.43 | 42 | New | 2 | New |
| Social Christian Reformist Party | 393,125 | 9.16 | 18 | +7 | 1 | –3 |
| Dominican Revolutionary Party | 336,201 | 7.83 | 16 | –61 | 1 | +1 |
| National Unity Party | 135,866 | 3.16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alternative Democratic Movement | 91,222 | 2.12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Social Democratic Institutional Bloc | 90,516 | 2.11 | 0 | –1 | 1 | +1 |
| Country Alliance | 63,073 | 1.47 | 1 | New | 0 | New |
| Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party | 57,786 | 1.35 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| Dominican Humanist Party | 55,531 | 1.29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Civic Renewal Party | 48,689 | 1.13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad Front | 45,310 | 1.06 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dominicans for Change | 38,030 | 0.89 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| National Progressive Force | 37,197 | 0.87 | 0 | –1 | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Reformist Party | 30,503 | 0.71 | 3 | +3 | 1 | +1 |
| Green Socialist Party | 24,823 | 0.58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Christian Democratic Union | 23,765 | 0.55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dominican Workers' Party | 21,457 | 0.50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Institutional Democratic Party | 20,845 | 0.49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Revolutionary Social Democratic Party | 20,323 | 0.47 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Christian People's Party | 19,374 | 0.45 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alliance for Democracy | 18,277 | 0.43 | 0 | –1 | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Party of Action | 16,562 | 0.39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| People's Democratic Party | 11,988 | 0.28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Citizen's Will National Party | 10,507 | 0.24 | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| Independent Revolutionary Party | 10,262 | 0.24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Present Youth Movement | 571 | 0.01 | 0 | New | 0 | New |
| Invalid/blank votes | 194,516 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 4,487,745 | 100 | 190 | – | 32 | – |
| Registered voters/turnout | 6,380,722 | 70.33 | – | – | – | – |
| Source: JCE | ||||||
Post-election riots
The electoral process was marked by serious irregularities, such as the expulsion of opposition delegates when starting the count, disappearance of ballot boxes, burning ballots, fires in provincial electoral boards, altered tally sheets, and the appearance of ballots from different provinces in the same urn. Large demonstrations and riots in San Pedro de Macorís that left six death occurred
The Interamerican Union of Electoral Organizations reported serious irregularities in the assembly of the general elections in Republic Dominicana.
The electoral authorities decided to cancel the votes cast in one-third of polling stations in both Santo Domingo Oeste and the Districto Nacional.
Various oppositionparties have demanded the dismissal of the chairman of the JCE.
References
- ↑ Elections in the Dominican Republic : May 20 Presidential Election Archived October 31, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. IFES
- ↑ Daily News DR1, 13 September 2013
- ↑ Falta un año para las elecciones más complejas elCaribe, 15 May 2015 (in Spanish)
- ↑ PLD someterá reforma a la Constitución para la reelección Diario Libre, 20 April 2015 (in Spanish)
- ↑ Diputados de Leonel se rebelan contra CP del PLD El Nacional, 20 April 2015 (in Spanish)
- ↑ Senadores del sector leonel dicen sería "incoherente" restablecer reelección Santiago Informa (in Spanish)
- ↑ Legisladores peledeístas en desacuerdo con línea del Comité Político DiarioLibre, 21 April 2015 (in Spanish)
- ↑ PLD presenta acuerdo entre Danilo Medina y Leonel Fernández Listin Diario, 28 May 2015 (in Spanish)
- ↑ Fieser, Ezra (2 June 2016). "Dominican Republic Approves Law Allowing Medina to Run in 2016". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
- 1 2 Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies) IPU
- ↑ Senado (Senate) IPU