15 May 2016 2020 → Turnout 4,708,746 61.74% 34.98% | Registered 6,765,245 2,847,438 1,613,222 | |
General elections were held in Dominican Republic on 15 May 2016 to elect a president, vice-president and the National Congress, as well as 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament, municipal councils, mayors and vice mayors. On 15 May 2015 Roberto Rosario, president of the Central Electoral Board, said that there would be about 4,300 seats up for election in the "most complex elections in history".
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Background
The previous parliamentary elections were held in 2010, and fresh elections would have usually been due in 2014 as Congress has a four-year term. However, in an effort to revert to the pre-1996 system and synchronize the dates of presidential and parliamentary and local elections in a single electoral year, the congressional term starting in 2010 was exceptionally extended to six years in order for the next congressional and municipal elections to be held alongside the next presidential elections due in 2016.
On 19 April 2015 the political committee of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party decided, without consensus, to amend the constitution to allow a president to be re-elected once, allowing incumbent President Danilo Medina to be presented for re-election, based on his high poll ratings. This led to tensions between party members and leaders, especially amongst supporters of Leonel Fernandez who was a pre-candidate for the elections. There was also an impasse in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, where senators and representatives close to Fernandez stated that they would not vote in favour of the Act to Call the Revising National Assembly to amend the constitution. After several weeks of internal disputes, the political committee, including Fernandez and Medina, agreed on 28 May to vote for the amendment. The amendment passed the Chamber on June 2.
Electoral system
The President of the Dominican Republic is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives more than 50% plus 1 of the vote, a second-round runoff will be held in June 2016. Presidents are limited to serving two consecutive terms of four years.
In the Congress, the 190 members of the Chamber of Deputies of which 178 are elected from 32 constituencies based on the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional; the number of seats is based on the population of each province, while 7 are elected in a separate constituency for expatriates and 5 allocated nationally to under represented lists. The elections are held using closed list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the d'Hondt method. The 32 members of the Senate are elected from the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional using first-past-the-post voting.
Voting is compulsory.
Post-election riots
The electoral process was marked by serious irregularities, such as the expulsion of opposition delegates when starting the count, disappearance of ballot boxes, burning ballots, fires in provincial electoral boards, altered tally sheets, and the appearance of ballots from different provinces in the same urn. Large demonstrations and riots in San Pedro de Macorís that left six death occurred
The Interamerican Union of Electoral Organizations reported serious irregularities in the assembly of the general elections in Republic Dominicana.
The electoral authorities decided to cancel the votes cast in one-third of polling stations in both Santo Domingo Oeste and the Districto Nacional.
Various oppositionparties have demanded the dismissal of the chairman of the JCE.