The outgoing Dominican head of state, Luis Abinader, proclaimed his victory in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday May 19 in front of his supporters. “The people have expressed themselves clearly (…). I accept the trust I have received and the obligation not to disappoint. I will not disappoint you,” he told his supporters a few minutes after his two main rivals admitted defeat.
Big favorite of the ballot, Luis Abinader campaigned around his economic record and his firm policy towards immigration from Haiti. He received 59.24% of the vote against 26.9% for former President Leonel Fernandez, according to partial results announced by the National Electoral Council (JCE, Junta Central Electoral). Abel Martinez came in third with 10.6% of the vote after counting 18% of the votes. The five other candidates are content with crumbs, according to the first results.
At the president’s campaign headquarters, some 200 activists and supporters of Mr. Abinader shouted with joy, clapped their hands, convinced of victory. “Four more years, four more years,” they chanted, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
Mr. Abinader’s political party, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which had already won 120 of the 150 municipalities in February, should also obtain the majority of seats of the 190 deputies and 32 senators at stake.
To watch in particular, the vote of the diaspora, mainly based in the United States. It represents 11% of voters and its remittances to the motherland accounted for 9.1% of GDP in 2022, according to the World Bank.
The opposition denounces a “massive vote buying”
“It’s a country that has a lot of democratic maturity. Dominican democracy is strong and will emerge strengthened,” assured Mr. Abinader in a brief statement after casting his ballot on Sunday in the capital.
“We are confident,” Mr. Fernandez promised after voting in a working-class district of the capital. “We saw a great turnout. »
The opposition denounced on Sunday “the massive buying of votes” by the president’s party, claiming to have “collected evidence – videos, photos”, according to Manuel Crespo, an opposition delegate. “Once again, they [the PRM] are buying ballots,” protested former president Danilo Medina (2012-2020), “they want to repeat what they did in February,” during the municipal.
Around 70% of Dominicans approve of Mr. Abinader’s management and in particular his firm policy towards Haiti.
Since coming to power in 2020, he has increased anti-immigration and expulsion operations, and built a wall on part of the border with Haiti, in the grip of a chronic political and humanitarian crisis aggravated by the violence of gangs who control a large part of its territory.
Mr Abinader boasts of positive economic results, citing “high” growth, “range-bound” inflation and low unemployment. The World Bank forecasts a 5% increase in GDP by the end of the year, as does the IMF, which highlights the country’s “potential” to “become an advanced economy” in the coming decades.
Leonel Fernandez, however, denounced manipulation of the figures, emphasizing that the basic food basket increased by 3.56% in 2023 compared to 2022.
