(Santo Domingo) Outgoing Dominican head of state Luis Abinader, who campaigned around his economic record and his firm policy towards immigration from Haiti, is on his way to re-election from the first round of the presidential election, receiving more than 50% of the votes with 18% of the votes counted.
Big favorite of the vote, collected 59.24% of the votes against 26.9% for former president Leonel Fernandez, according to partial results announced by the National Electoral Council (JCE, Central Electoral Junta). If he wins an absolute majority in the first round, he will be declared the winner and will therefore serve a second four-year term.
Abel Martinez comes third with 10.6% of the votes after counting 18% of the votes.
The five other candidates are content with crumbs, according to the first results.
PHOTO HENRY ROMERO, REUTERS
Luis Abinader
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 an AFP journalist.
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 transfers of funds to the motherland accounted for 9.1% of GDP in 2022, according to the World Bank.
“I voted for Abinader…he did a good job,” Maria Ramona Antonio, a 74-year-old dentist, said after voting Sunday in Santo Domingo. “Look at how tourism is going, which creates jobs… the roads built, these people in need who now have health insurance. »
Haiti: “Let all these people leave”
“It is a country which has a lot of democratic maturity. Dominican democracy is strong and will emerge strengthened,” assured Mr. Abinader in a brief statement after submitting his ballot on Sunday in the capital.
“We are confident,” promised Mr. Fernandez after voting in a working-class district of the capital. “We saw a strong turnout. »
PHOTO RICARDO HERNANDEZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Leonel Fernandez
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.
“Haiti? What we want is for all these people to leave for their Haiti, it affects us a lot,” said Deisy Castillo, a 74-year-old voter.
“I don’t like the vexations made to our Haitian brothers and sisters, but I like a very strong nationality policy. I like the current position of maintaining sovereignty,” says Javier Taveras, 38, who nevertheless expresses doubts about the effectiveness of the border wall.
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.