2004 presidential election in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican presidential election in 2004 took place on May 16, 2004. In total, just over five million Dominicans were asked to cast their votes. Under the 1966 Constitution , the Dominican Republic is a presidential republic. The head of state and chief executive officer (head of government) is the president , who is directly elected for four years .
Eleven candidates ran for election. According to polls, the favorite in the election campaign was the incumbent from 1996 to 2000, Leonel Fernández Reyna from the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), who competed against the incumbent President Hipólito Mejía from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD). The remaining nine candidates were given no chance of being elected.
In the hope of a re-election of Mejía due to his high approval ratings in the first two years of office, the ruling PRD passed a constitutional amendment in 2003 that made the (one-time) immediate re-election, which had been banned since 1994, possible again.
In the second half of Mejía's term in office, however, the Dominican Republic experienced one of the worst economic crises in the country's history, fueled by a failed economic policy by the Mejía government. The crisis culminated in the collapse of the country's second largest private bank, the Baninter, a massive devaluation of the Dominican peso and galloping inflation of up to 42%. Mejía's approval ratings fell dramatically, and Leonel Fernández was the undisputed favorite for the election according to all projections.
The election campaign was marked by hateful verbal arguments and insults. This is how Mejía Fernández called a "simulant and liar" and this Mejía a "functional illiterate". The confrontation became so aggressive that the Catholic Church and the Movimiento Cívico Participación Ciudadana called on the brawlers to moderate. For his part, the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission , Santiago Murray, warned Mejia not to use government funds for his re-election campaign.
The candidate of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC), Eduardo Estrella, said in his election appearances that with the PRD “the country is dying of hunger and with the PLD of fear”. Mejía pointed to the reforms of his government, but at the same time emphasized that there was still a lot to do, whereupon the PLD "asked" him, que por favor no hiciera nada más (no, please, nothing more) , and created the popular motto : E 'pa' fuera que van! (They go out!) . Programmatic proposals, on the other hand, could hardly be heard in the election campaigns.
In the heated mood there were several incidents, the most serious of which resulted in two dead and two injured.
Internal party differences in the PRD and in the PRSC also contributed to the tension of the situation. The lifting of the ban on immediate re-election had led to a split in the PRD. Hatuey De Camps, the former party president who had called on his supporters to “vote for the devil and his brother rather than for Mejía's re-election,” said he would stick to his rejection of re-election, no matter what the cost. He and other members were then expelled from the party. In the PRSC, on the other hand, the proponents of Mejía's re-election, the supporters of the PLD and the supporters of Eduardo Estrella fought against each other. Here, too, there were party expulsions.
The alliance of the PLD finally comprised the Fuerza Nacional Progresista, the Unión Demócrata Cristiana, the Partido de los Trabajadores Dominicanos, the Alianza por la Democracia, the Partido Liberal de la República Dominicana and the Bloque Institucional Social Demócrata. In the alliance of the PRD, the Partido Unidad Democrática, the Partido Quisqueyano Demócrata, the Partido Renacentista Nacional, the Partido Unidad Nacional and the Partido Humanista Dominicano were united. The Partido Nacional de Veteranos y Civiles allied with the PRSC.
As expected, Fernández won the necessary absolute majority of the votes in the first ballot. He received 57.11% of the vote, his competitor Mejía only achieved 33.65%. Eduardo Estrella from the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) came in at 8.65%. Rafael Alburquerque was elected Vice President.
Election result
Final result of the state electoral commission:
| space | candidate | Political party | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonel Fernández Reyna | Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) | 57.11% |
| 2 | Hipólito Mejía Dominguez | Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) | 33.65% |
| 3 | Eduardo Estrella | Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) | 8.65% |
| 4th | Rafael Flores Estrella | Partido Fuerza de la Revolución (FR) | 0.13% |
| 5 | Ramón Almánzar | Partido Nueva Alternativa (PNA) | 0.12% |
| 6th | Trajano Santana | Partido Revolucionario Independiente (PRI) | 0.11% |
| 7th | Héctor Rafael Peguero Méndez | Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC) | 0.09% |
| 8th | Raúl Pérez Peña | Partido por la Auténtica Democracia (PAD) | 0.05% |
| 9 | Ramón Emilio Concepción | Movimiento Solidaridad Nacional (MNS) | 0.04% |
| 10 | Carlos Manuel Bencosme | Alianza Social Dominicana (ASD) | 0.03% |
| 11 | Ramón Nelson Didiez Nadal | Partido Demócrata Popular (PDP) | 0.02% |
The turnout was 71.98% (in the Dominican Republic, voting is compulsory for voters under 70 years of age ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Melissa Marcelino: Sistema electoral y sistema de partidos en República Dominicana 1978-2008. In: Website of the Observatorio Politico Dominicano. August 15, 2011.
- ^ Fausto Rosario: No vale la pena ese debate ( Memento of June 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: Participación Ciudadana. April 27, 2002.
- ↑ Norma Domínguez: Roberto Rodríguez Marchena: En Santo Domingo estamos asistiendo a un proceso de africanización. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: America Economica. February 20, 2004.
- ↑ a b c Sorange Batista: 2004: Leonel derrotó a Hipólito. In: Hoy. May 6, 2012.
- ↑ Luis M. Cárdenas: Expulsan a Hatuey y Felipa del PRD por alta traición. In: Hoy. May 19, 2004.
- ↑ Elecciones presidenciales 2004. In: Website of the Observatorio Político Dominicano (XLSX; 21 kB).
