Dominican Republic faces historic election News
Dominican Republic faces historic election

The Dominican Republic on Sunday will hold elections for over 4,000 positions, including the president, vice-president, members of congress and the municipal councilors. This is the first time in over two decades that elections will be held for all electoral positions [AS/COA report] in the country. The election cycle is even more complex [El Caribe report, in Spanish] because there are over twenty-six parties [TeleSur report] who are running for the electoral positions where the winner is determined by a manual counting [Dominican Today report] of the ballots. As such, there are going to be over 300 legal and judicial observers [El Caribe report, spanish] on hand to ensure that the elections are able to proceed without any issues. Current President Danilo Medina [official website] is expected to win, according to early polls, but will face a run off election if he does win the majority of the votes.

The election comes on the eve of major issues plaguing the country. Judge Vernon Broderick for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled [JURIST report] in February that suspended Deputy UN Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, who represents the Dominican Republic, cannot claim diplomatic immunity on bribery charges. President Medina announced [JURIST report] last June that the country had certified the citizenship of thousands whose status had been in question for almost a decade.The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court ruled [JURIST report] in November of 2014 to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, raising concerns about the welfare of the country’s migrant population.