2024 Dominican Republic general election

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2024 Dominican Republic general election
Flag of the Dominican Republic.svg
  2020 19 May 2024 (2024-05-19)2028 
Presidential election
  Luis Abinader 2022 (cropped).jpg Leonel Fernandez cropped.jpg Abel Martinez cropped.jpg
Nominee Luis Abinader Leonel Fernández Abel Martínez  [ es ]
Party PRM FP PLD
Alliance
Dominican Republic Advances
Rescue Dominican Republic
National Progressive Bloc
Running mate Raquel Peña Ingrid MendózaZoraíma Cuello
Popular vote2,505,1291,257,794453,016
Percentage57.45%28.84%10.39%

President before election

Luis Abinader
PRM

Elected President

Luis Abinader
PRM

General elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 19 May 2024 to elect a president, vice-president, 32 senators, 190 deputies and 20 PARLACEN deputies. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Incumbent President Luis Abinader won re-election to a second term with a majority of the vote in the first round, eliminating the need for a runoff. Abinader, just after having won a supermajority in both houses of the Congress, announced a constitutional reform.

Electoral system

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 is held between the two candidates with the highest votes in 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. [5]

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. [6]

The 20 seats in the Central American Parliament are elected by proportional representation.

Conduct

Around eight million people were eligible to vote in this election. Voting began at 07:00 on 19 May and closed at 17:00. [7] [8] The process was described as smooth, apart from small irregularities reported by opposition parties. [9]

Candidates

[10]

PartyPresidential candidateVice presidential candidate
Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) Luis Abinader Raquel Peña
Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) Abel Martínez Durán  [ es ]Zoraima Cuello
Partido Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) Leonel Fernández Ingrid Mendoza
Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) Miguel Vargas Joel Díaz Ureña
Frente Amplio (FA)María Teresa CabreraJesús Díaz Morán
Movimiento Patria para Todos y Todas (MPT)Fulgencio SeverinoFrancisca Peguero
Partido Generacion de Servidores (PGS)Carlos PeñaNikauly de la Mota
Opción Democrática (OD)Virginia Antares RodríguezIco Abreu
Partido Esperanza Democratica (PED)Roque EspaillatJosé Ernesto Fadul

Campaign

Among notable issues during the campaign was the effects of the political unrest in Haiti and increased migration from the latter country. During a debate, President Abinader pledged to continue the deportation of illegal immigrants and finish construction of a wall along the border with Haiti. Both Leonel Fernandez and Abel Martínez also supported a harsh stance on migration. [11]

Opinion polls

PollsterDate(s) Abinader
(PRM)
Martínez  [ es ]
(PLD)
Fernandez
(FP)
AtlasIntel 6–9 May 202465.2%11.5%17.3%
Acxiona 5–8 May 202467.2%7.22%21.5%
Gallup-RCC Media 1–4 May 202460%11.1%24.6%
Markestrategia 15–17 April 202467.9%7.1%18.4%
Gallup RCC Media 6–9 March 202464%12%19%
CID Gallup 27–28 February 202459%13%27%
RD Elige 20–26 February 202452.3%13%29%
Acxiona 2–5 February 202454%9%24%
ACD Media 15–18 January 202455.1%10.4%26.3%
Centro Económico del Cibao 17–18 December 202358.2%9.9%22.9%
RD Elige 1–9 December 202352.9%16.9%28.7%
Greenberg-Diario Libre 15–18 November 202349%17%29%
Markestrategia 12–14 November 202357.6%10.7%24.6%
Gallup RCC Media 25–29 October 202355.2%13.5%27.4%
Consulting Research Group 21–23 September 202336.3%30.9%20.1%
RD Elige 12–16 September 202353.1%16.6%27.8%
Markestrategia 26–28 August 202354.6%12.5%24.8%
Acxiona 1–5 August 202353.0%11.0%22.0%
Markestrategia 19–21 July 202355.8%13.1%29.1%
Gallup RCC Media 11–14 June 202347.7%19.0%28.9%
RD Elige 17–20 May 202347.3%21.5%27.0%
Sondeos 22–30 April 202348%11.0%31.0%
Gallup RCC Media 1–5 April 202348.5%18.2%25.9%
RD Elige 14–18 March 202344.8%27.6%22.4%
Grupo de Investigaciones Digitales 30 January–3 February 202349.9%21.0%18.0%
Markestrategia 20–22 January 202347.7%14.8%27.0%
Acxiona 24–28 November 202244.0%17.0%23.0%

Results

Preliminary results showed that Abinader had won outright re-election in the first round with around 60% of the vote, while his Modern Revolutionary Party was expected to win a supermajority in the Congress of the Dominican Republic. [9]

Re-elected President Abinader, after obtaining a supermajority in both houses, announced a constitutional reform.

President

CandidateRunning matePartyVotes%
Luis Abinader Raquel Peña Modern Revolutionary Party 2,505,18657.45
Leonel Fernández Ingrid Mendoza People's Force 1,257,90728.85
Abel Martínez  [ es ] Zoraima Cuello Dominican Liberation Party 453,03710.39
Roque Espaillat José Ernesto Fadul Democratic Hope Party 59,3151.36
Carlos Peña Nikauly de la Mota Generation of Servants Party 31,5190.72
Virginia Antares Rodríguez Ico Abreu Democratic Choice 25,1460.58
Miguel Vargas Joel Díaz Ureña Dominican Revolutionary Party 19,7400.45
María Teresa Cabrera Jesús Díaz Morán Broad Front 6,2360.14
Fulgencio Severino Francisca Peguero Country for All Movement 2,7300.06
Total4,360,816100.00
Registered voters/turnout8,145,548
Source: JCE

Senate

The Modern Revolutionary Party won a supermajority in the Senate, seeing their seat total increase from 17 to 24.

PartySeats+/–
Modern Revolutionary Party 24+7
Dominican Liberation Party 0−6
People's Force 3+2
Social Christian Reformist Party 1−5
Liberal Reformist Party 1+1
People First Party 1+1
Alliance for Democracy 1+1
Independent Revolutionary Party 1+1
Total32
Source: Diario Libre (Elections 2024)

Chamber of Deputies

The Modern Revolutionary Party won a supermajority in the Chamber of Deputies, the very first time ever a political party achieved this in modern Dominican history.

Central American Parliament

Aftermath

Both Leonel Fernandez and Abel Martínez conceded to Abinader shortly after the release of the result. In his victory speech, Abinader said that the "changes that we’ve made are going to be irreversible”, adding that the "best is yet to come". [9]

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References

  1. "2024 presidential election set for 19 May; municipal election will be on 18 February". DR1.com. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  2. "R.Dominicana celebrará elecciones presidenciales el 19 de mayo de 2024" (in European Spanish). La Propuesta Digital. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  3. "Presidente de la JCE asegura que elecciones de 2024 se organizan y pagan en 2023" (in European Spanish). Mirador pCentral. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  4. "En 2023 arranca en República Dominicana el proceso de cara a las elecciones de 2024" (in European Spanish). Listín Diario. 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  5. Senado (Senate) IPU
  6. Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies) IPU
  7. "The day has arrived! Everything you need to know about the presidential and congressional elections being held in the Dominican Republic". Dominican Today. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  8. "Dominican Republic voters head to the polls with eyes on Haiti crisis". Al Jazeera. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 "Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader heads to reelection as competitors concede early". Associated Press. 20 May 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  10. https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/meet-the-candidates-dominican-republic/
  11. "Haiti's crisis rises to the forefront of elections in neighboring Dominican Republic". Associated Press. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.