After an atypical campaign reduced to its simplest expression due to the epidemic due to the coronavirus, the Dominican Republic is preparing to elect, Sunday, July 5, its new president. After four consecutive terms, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD, center) is afraid of losing power, in a country shaken in recent years by strong mobilizations against corruption.
"It is the first time in sixteen years that elections have not been a mere formality for the PLD", notes Christian Girault, a researcher in political science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Latin America in Paris. This party controls all the powers, executive, legislative, judicial and media. Nearly 7.5 million voters are called upon to choose the successor of President Danilo Medina – in place since 2012 -, as well as 190 deputies, 32 senators and 20 members of the Central American parliament.
Fraud charges
Two businessmen and a former president vie for the presidential race. PLD candidate, entrepreneur and former minister of public works Gonzalo Castillo, 59, is the dolphin of Danilo Medina – whom the Constitution prevented from running for a third term. Only second in the polls behind Luis Abinader, 52, of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM, Social Democrat). A third man, Leonel Fernandez, 66, a former ally of Danilo Medina in the PLD, could play the kingmakers in a possible second round on July 26.
Head of State for three terms, between 1996 and 2000 then between 2004 and 2012, Mr. Fernandez left the PLD, which he presided over, after his defeat in the October 2019 primaries, which he attributed to fraud. Allied with the Christian Social Reformist Party (center right), he is credited with less than 10% of the voting intentions, the votes that are lacking today in the PLD to retain power.
The general elections were supposed to take place on May 17, two months after the municipal elections on March 15. However, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the authorities to repel them. As of July 2, Covid-19 had affected just over 34,000 people and killed 765.
The "green steps" against corruption
In the aftermath of the municipal elections, won by the opposition – the PRM notably conquered the town hall of Santo Domingo -, many analysts believed that Luis Abinader had every chance of capturing the presidency of the PLD in the first round. A Gallup poll published on June 29 credits it with 53.7% of the vote. "The victory of the opposition to the municipal elections created a momentum which, if the presidential election was held only two months later as planned, would probably have resulted in a new defeat for the PLD, considers Ivan Ogando, director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in the Dominican Republic (FLACSO-RD). After eight years of Medina's mandate and eight of Fernandez's, there is a logical tiredness of the population, but, above all, a fed up with the scandals of corruption and the lack of response from the justice system. "
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