Today the citizens of Dominican Republic went to the polls for second time in the year (Local elections were in February 18th), more than 8.1 million of registered voters in the country and abroad were called to vote, polls have already been closed, incumbent President Luís Abinader of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM, socialdemocrat de jure, conservative de facto) is the favorite to secure reelection, their main rivals are Abel Martínez, former mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros for the centre-left Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and the always-running former President Leonel Fernández with his People's Force party (FP) who splt off from the PLD back in 2019.
In the 2020, Abinader took office winning the election with 52.5% of the votes, the then-rulling party PLD candidate Gonzalo Castillo finished 2nd with 37.5% and Fernández ended 3rd with 8.9%. Within the "historical parties", christian democrat PRSC endorsded then Fernández and currently supports Abinader while the catch-all PRD who endorsed in 2016 and 2020 their former rival PLD is now running alone with their current leader Miguel Vargas and likely very far to the Top 3 (thus becoming irrelevant).
Dominican electoral system from
Wikipedia:
The President of the Dominican Republic is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives 50% + 1 vote, or more, of the total votes, a second-round runoff will be held between the two candidates with the highest votes on the first round.
The 32 members of the Senate are elected from the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional using first-past-the-post voting.
The 190 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected in three groups; 178 are elected by 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 members are elected by proportional representation by Dominican expatriates in three overseas constituencies, and five seats are allocated at the national level to parties that received at least 1% of the vote nationally, giving preference to those that did not win any of the 178 constituency seats.
The 20 seats in the Central American Parliament are elected by proportional representation.
One of the main issues of the campaign is the crisis in their fallen-state neighbors of Haiti and the increased migration who comes from there. Abinader during this term did a very Trump-solution like build a wall along the border (not sure if whatever is in charge in Haiti will "pay for it") and pledged during debates to finish their construction and continue deporting illegal inmigrants, Martínez and Fernández also supports a harsh stance on Haitian migration.
Just In: First bulletin with 38% of the precincts processed, Abinader (PRM) without any surprise wins reelection for another 4-year term with 59.2% of the votes, Fernández (FP) is currently 2nd with 26.9% and PLD' Martínez just have 10.6%. Other candidates (six in total) below 1.5%
Source:
https://listindiario.com/elecciones-generales-2024/20240519/luis-abinader-queda-ganar-elecciones-presidenciales-votos_809033.html
