Dominican Republic presidential election, 2000

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Dominican Republic presidential election, 2000
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Nominee Hipólito Mejía Danilo Medina Joaquín Balaguer
Party PRD PLD PSRC
Popular vote1,593,231796,923785,926
Percentage49.87%24.94%24.60%
President before election

Leonel Fernández
PLD

Elected President

Hipólito Mejía
PRD

Presidential elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 16 May 2000. [1] Hipólito Mejía of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) won the election, defeating Danilo Medina of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and former president Joaquín Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC). Voter turnout was 76.1%. [2]

Dominican Republic country in the Caribbean

The Dominican Republic is a country located in the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that are shared by two sovereign states. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean nation by area at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi), and third by population with approximately 10 million people, of which approximately three million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city.

Hipólito Mejía President of the Dominican Republic

Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez, is a Dominican politician who served as President of the Dominican Republic from 2000 to 2004.

Dominican Revolutionary Party political party in Dominican Republic

The Dominican Revolutionary Party is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left of the centre position and social democratic in name, the party has shifted since the 2000s toward the centre-right. The party’s distinctive color is white. Traditionally, the party has two presidents: the "Titular President" and the "Acting President" ; until 2010 the Presidents and the Secretary-General were proscribed to run for any elected office.

Contents

Background

The last presidential election in 1996 saw Leonel Fernández of the PLD elected as President. [3] He defeated José Francisco Peña Gómez of the PRD in the runoff after incumbent President Joaquín Balaguer, told his supporters to back Fernández. His party's candidate, then Vice President Jacinto Peynado had come in third place at the election without support from the core of the party. [3]

Leonel Fernández Dominican Republic politician

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and was President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. Since January 2016, he is the President of the EU–LAC Foundation.

José Francisco Peña Gómez was a politician from the Dominican Republic. He was the leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), a three-time candidate for president of the Dominican Republic and former Mayor of Santo Domingo. He is considered, along with Joaquín Balaguer and Juan Bosch, as one of the most prominent Dominican political figures of the 20th century. His widow Peggy Cabral is currently one of the two co-Presidents of the PRD.

Between 1996 and 2000 the economy grew strongly, with 7.1% growth in 1998 and 8.3% in 1999. [3] This growth, the fastest of any Caribbean country, was fueled by increased foreign investment and the privatisation of state owned enterprises. [3] However Fernández's approval ratings were only 45% by 1999, with strong discontent among the poor who had not benefited from economic growth and had seen power cuts and price rises. [4] This helped lead to the opposition PRD winning a majority in the 1998 parliamentary elections. [4]

Economy of the Dominican Republic national economy

The Dominican Republic has the ninth largest economy in Latin America, and is the largest in the Caribbean and Central America region. It is an upper middle-income developing country primarily dependent on mining, agriculture, trade, and services. Although the service sector has recently overtaken agriculture as the leading employer of Dominicans, agriculture remains the most important sector in terms of domestic consumption and is in second place in terms of export earnings. Tourism accounts for more than $1 billion in annual earnings. free-trade zone earnings and tourism are the fastest-growing export sectors. According to a 1999 International Monetary Fund report, remittances from Dominican Americans, are estimated to be about $1.5 billion per year. Most of these funds are used to cover basic household needs such as shelter, food, clothing, health care and education. Secondarily, remittances have financed small businesses and other productive activities.

Candidates

Candidate of the Social Christian Reformist Party Joaquin Balaguer Joaquin Balaguer 1977.jpg
Candidate of the Social Christian Reformist Party Joaquín Balaguer

Fernández was unable to run for re-election as the then constitution prevented consecutive presidential terms. [4] As a result, the governing PLD selected an aide to Fernández, Danilo Medina, as their candidate. [4] However, there was little enthusiasm for Medina, even in the PLD, and he trailed in the polls. [4]

Constitution of the Dominican Republic supreme law of the Dominica Republic

The Dominican Republic has gone through 39 constitutions, more than any other country, since its independence in 1844. This statistic is a somewhat deceiving indicator of political stability, however, because of the Dominican practice of promulgating a new constitution whenever an amendment was ratified. Although technically different from each other in some particular provisions, most new constitutions contained in reality only minor modifications of those previously in effect. Sweeping constitutional innovations were actually relatively rare.

The opposition centre-left PRD candidate was Hipólito Mejía, a former agriculture minister from 1978 to 1982. [5] Mejía quickly established an early lead in the polls. [4]

In January 2000 the former president Balaguer, at the age of 93, announced that he would seek an eighth term as president as the candidate of his Social Christian Reformist Party. [6] By this time, Balaguer was completely blind and unable to walk without assistance, [7] but still had many committed supporters which meant he could hold the balance between the other 2 main candidates. [7]

Campaign

At the beginning of 2000, opinion polls showed Mejía in the lead with 45% support, compared to 26% for Medina and 20% for Balaguer. [3]

Mejía campaigned by attacking inequality between rich and poor, pledging to increase social spending and to preserve a role for the state in the economy. [5] Mejía said that he would reverse some of the privatisations that he said had been corrupt [3] and annul licenses for 10 sugar refineries. [5] Mejía also pledged to make the Dominican Republic self-sufficient in food, from its position as an importer of $1.1bn food. [5] However some of Meija's plans were seen as campaign rhetoric and he was seen as likely to be more economically orthodox than his campaign would make him seem to be. [5]

Mejía's plans were attacked by the incumbent president Fernández, who said they would damage the economy. [3] Medina meanwhile pledged to continue the economic policies pursued by Fernández, while trying to help the neediest people more. [8] Medina saw economic growth as providing the opportunity for more investment in education and health. [8] However the Social Christian Reformist Party also attacked the government for mismanagement and was seen as being less likely to back the PLD than in 1996 if they came third. [5] Balaguer said he would prioritise agrarian reform, helping farmers and preserving the natural resources of the Dominican Republic if he was elected and he gained as the election neared. [9]

Fears that the election could be affected by violence were raised after an official of the PLD was killed after an incident involving the bodyguards of the PRD's Mejía. [10] [11] However the election proceeded alright and international election monitors said they did not find any irregularities in the vote. [12]

Results

The results saw Hipólito Mejía win 49.87% of the vote, compared to 24.9% for Danilo Medina and 24.6% for Joaquín Balaguer. [13] Mejía finished just a few thousand votes short of an outright majority, and was thus due to face a runoff with Medina on 30 June. However, Mejía's supporters claimed victory and called on the opposition to avoid the expense of a runoff. [13] After Balaguer said that he could not ensure all his supporters would back Medina, Medina said he not seek a runoff vote despite calls to do so from some in his own party. [12] However, Medina would have needed nearly all of Balaguer's supporters to back him in the runoff in order to have any realistic chance of closing the nearly 25-point first-round gap with Mejía.

As a result, Mejía was inaugurated as president on the 16 August 2000 and said that making the government accountable, education, health and welfare would be his priorities as president. [14]

CandidatesPartyVotes%
Hipólito Mejía Dominican Revolutionary Party 1,593,23149.87
Danilo Medina Dominican Liberation Party 796,92324.94
Joaquín Balaguer Social Christian Reformist Party 785,92624.60
Others18,7360.59
Invalid/blank votes42,090-
Total3,236,906100
Source: Nohlen

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References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p247 ISBN   978-0-19-928357-6
  2. ↑ Nohlen, p264
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Wily Balaguer keeps everyone guessing". Financial Times. 2000-01-13. p. 6.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Americas: Calling the blind man's buff". The Economist. 1999-09-25. p. 40.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Colitt, Raymond (2000-01-21). "Dominican Republic opposition riding high in polls: Hipo lito Mejia advocates more social spending and an active role for the state in the economy". Financial Times. p. 6.
  6. ↑ "Balaguer seeks eighth term". Financial Times. 2000-01-17. p. 8.
  7. 1 2 Ferguson, James (2000-02-04). "Veteran, 94, holds balance of power in Dominican vote". London: The Guardian. p. 18. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  8. 1 2 Gonzalez, David (2000-05-17). "In Boom Times, the Have-Nots Influence the Dominican Vote". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  9. ↑ James, Canute (2000-05-05). "Dominican voters rally to vision of a political veteran: Despite blindness and infirmity, seven-times president Joaquin Balaguer may emerge once again from this month's election as the leader of his small Caribbean state". Financial Times. p. 7.
  10. ↑ "Poll violence fears grow". Financial Times. 2000-05-03. p. 4.
  11. ↑ "Dominican Candidate's Guards Kill Aide of Rival". The New York Times . 2000-05-01. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  12. 1 2 Gonzalez, David (2000-05-19). "Dominican Wins Presidency As Opponent Shuns Runoff". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  13. 1 2 Gonzalez, David (2000-05-18). "Runoff or Not, Dominican Opposition Declares Victory". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  14. ↑ "Dominican Republic swears in president". The Free Lance–Star. 2000-08-16. p. 26.
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