Dominican Republic
Medina has a good chance at re-election
Multi-voting: The Dominicans are called this Sunday to choose a Parliament, Senate and local representatives, and the President. In the case of the presidential election there is a clear favorite.
A rally with presidential candidate Danilo Medina (center) shortly before the election
In a recent survey in the Dominican Republic head of state Danilo Medina is located at 57 percent, clearly in the lead. The presidential candidate of the 2014 party founded PRM, the entrepreneur Luis Abinader, would land according to the last polls in second place with 34 percent of the vote.
The 64-year-old Medina belongs to the social democratic party, PLD, since twelve years in Power. He can look back on a successful term of office: The country’s economy has been booming for years, thanks to a neoliberal model, and a strong tourism and infrastructure area. With an economic growth of about six percent, the Dominican Republic has long been a popular holiday destination of the Germans was – according to the world Bank, the leader in Latin America in the years 2014 and 2015. However, about 40 percent of the citizens live in poverty. The unemployment rate is 14 percent.
President visits as a trademark
According to a report by the business magazine “Forbes” does not apply Medina as the most popular President in Latin America, even if his policy is not always internally undisputed. The Economist likes to be very close to the people, in the past few years, he made his so-called “Visitas presidenciales” (presidential visit) in many municipalities of the country, a kind of trademark of his government style.
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However, the President also has critics. Actually, Medina shouldn’t have this time to compete again – one of Medina’s predecessor and party colleague Leonel Fernández supported amendment to the Constitution said since 2010, the direct re-election of the heads of state. Inspired by his high popularity values of Medina had made but in the past year, the reform of the Constitution, to reverse. The measure was controversial, opponents accused the President of a democracy-damaging behavior. Criticism was even heard from her own party.
Democratic institutions are under pressure
“There is a lot of discussion about the weakness of the democratic institutions of the country”, – said the head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in the Caribbean, Sarah Ganter, the German press Agency. This was particularly so in the electoral context. It was positive but that there were now many voices calling for joint efforts for more democracy.
Around 6.7 million Dominicans are called upon to determine on this Sunday next to the head of state, the Parliament and the Senate. Also be selected from the thousands of municipal representatives. The polls open at 6.00 PM (12.00 PM CEST) and close at 18.00 (0.00 hours CEST). The first results are expected in the course of Monday.
kle/ust (dpa, afpe, ape)