Protests happening in Higuey.

[dv8]

apparently the businesses close to JCE in higuey closed because of potential protests.
they still need to count 141 of 288 voting stations.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...l-de-higuey-por-rumor-de-disturbios-AC3730222

 

[rubio_higuey]

Don Amable won easily his senate seat. Partially because he had less competition, but also because the senate is a province-wide election, where all towns and rural areas participate. He may well have lost the Higuey town mesas, though.

He won for one and only reason - because he was also running as PLD senator and was "arrastrado" by PLD deputies vote. If his PLR ran independently, it would be much different numbers. Most of those voting PLD for president/deputies would not vote for him as senator had he run independently with his PLR.

Same goes for his daughter, but there only the most brainwashed PLD voters (as in vote PLD always and everywhere and don't even use your brain) voted for his daughter (also running for PLD because of her daddy's alliance with PLD). Most of PLD voters voted Cholitin.

In the beginning of the campaign, Amable went to Danilo and he turned him down, then went to Abinader and he turned him down, so went back to Danilo and finally his third attempt bore fruit and he became official PLD candidate for senator, and his daughter PLD candidate for mayor.

It needs to be noted that PRD which also has countrywide-alliance with PLD, broke ranks in La Altagracia province on municipal level and put their own candidate.
THAT single thing speaks words how bad things are in Higuey under the current administration of the owners of Higuey.

 

[Virgo]

In the beginning of the campaign, Amable went to Danilo and he turned him down, then went to Abinader and he turned him down, so went back to Danilo and finally his third attempt bore fruit and he became official PLD candidate for senator, and his daughter PLD candidate for mayor.

It needs to be noted that PRD which also has countrywide-alliance with PLD, broke ranks in La Altagracia province on municipal level and put their own candidate.
THAT single thing speaks words how bad things are in Higuey under the current administration of the owners of Higuey.

You are entitled to your opinion.

Amable seems to have a knack for winning his province. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think he has NEVER lost a single time there (going back decades). Last time around he was allied with PRD (essentially today's PRM) and won the province for Hip?lito (he wasn't himself running, since it was only a presidential election). Pretty strange that the PRM wouldn't want him this time. First time I read that.
The problem with the PLD was simply that they didn't come to terms about who was going to get what. Eventually they agreed. The PLD won the province at the presidential level (as did Hip?lito the previous time). So being allied with him seems to work well for the major candidates.

You may be misinformed about the PRD-PLD alliance. First, at the congress level, they were allied with Amable's PLR. So, PRD didn't seem to mind running with Amable at all. However, from the start the PLD-PRD alliance was not 100% nationwide. They agreed to exclude certain cities/towns at the municipal level (not only Higuey, for example SD Este (the country's largest city), SD Oeste, and Santiago were all excluded, among others). In the case of Altagracia, it would have been very difficult to accommodate the aspirations of the PLR, the PLD and the PRD in the same ballot, at the municipal level

By the way, the PRSC-PRM pact also had exceptions in various places across the country.

 

[chic]

before the election they get chic ken now they cooking it....
i wonder if they know theres a problem afoot???

 

[Virgo]

Per BOLETIN #8

Karina 22,133 votos --> 35.94%

Cholitin 19,665 votos --> 31.93%

So, the gap is now 4 pts. She seems to be pulling away, as anticipated.
Cholitin has already called for the election to be annulled, which suggests he expects to be behind when all is said and done. Probably won't happen, though.

 

[Virgo]

The Higuey final tally has been issued (baring legal actions).

Karina 31,916 votes --> 36.02%

Cholitin 28,064 votes --> 31.67%

3,852 votes (4.35 percent points) separate the two.

 

[Kipling333]

and all the childish behaviour achieved exactly nothing as far as the counting was concerned !!!

 

[rubio_higuey]

What is clear is that 60% of PLD voters did NOT vote PLD on municipal level.

Also what is clear is that 75.89% of Higuey did not vote for her.

 

[Chirimoya]

Quasi-feudalism in action. The only people who vote for them and defend them have their snouts in the same trough.

 

[AlterEgo]

Quasi-feudalism in action. The only people who vote for them and defend them have their snouts in the same trough.

I love the phrasing. You don't need a picture to paint 1000 words.

 

[Virgo]

What is clear is that 60% of PLD voters did NOT vote PLD on municipal level.

Hardly a surprise since the BIS candidate, Cholitin, is a long time PLD leader, who in fact ran for the Senate in the PLD ticket against Karina's father in the previous election.

Also what is clear is that 75.89% of Higuey did not vote for her.

Not sure what you mean. She got 36.02 %. 100-36.02=63.98.

Are you referring to the mesas that were located inside the town (excluding rural areas)?

It obviously was a true multi-candidate election, with at least 3 with a substatial share of the vote (17-36 %) and several with 2-5 %.

Obviously if the anti-Karina voters had united behind a single candidate s/he would have won by a landslide. That didn't happen though. In every election many candidates win with less than half of the votes, when there is NO run-off.

 

[Kipling333]

I wonder if many readers here have been to Higuey and along the road to El Seibo ..quasi feudalism is not too far off the mark

 

[rubio_higuey]

Hardly a surprise since the BIS candidate, Cholitin, is a long time PLD leader, who in fact ran for the Senate in the PLD ticket against Karina's father in the previous election.



Not sure what you mean. She got 36.02 %. 100-36.02=63.98.

No, I am doing a simple math, votes received (PLD and allies) vs total eligible votes.

Many people even forget that even in case of President Medina, the majority of Dominicans did not vote for him. Yes, 62-65% (what was the %?) of those who voted, did vote for him, but the majority of Dominicans did not vote for him (given a 70% voters' turnout).

Same goes for this municipal (Higuey) elections.

You have to account for the fact that most of the people that didn't go voting are against the winning candidate (obviously, if they were in favor or liked the winning candidate, they would have gone and voted for him, this is the simple election-vote truth). The people that did not go voting are mostly people that are tired of elections, do not believe in elections, or believe that elections will be rigged and there is no point in going to vote. Only a small number of people that did not vote, would have gone voting and voted for the winning candidate but were unable to because of illness/travel/etc. Because people that like a candidate (in this case La Hija de Papi) and want that candidate to stay in the office, do not stay at home on the election day. This is simple logic, and results in additional full 31% of population in disapproval/indifferent status to the current mayor (as opposite to approval/liking).

So when you take total number of eligible votes (the number is printed on the last boletin) and you take the number of votes received, you get an approximate approval rating of 25%. The voter turnout was 69%, 69% x 36% = 25%

P.S. A substantial part of those that did not go vote are sinverguenzas ho sold their cedulas. This does not make them in favor of the winning candidate though.

 

[Kipling333]

There is not even a shred of evidence to suggest that people who did not vote at elections would vote against the incumbents..in fact it could just as well be argued that voters for Danilo and other sitting candiadtes were thinkig there vote was necessary . The whole argument is ridiculous and speculative in the extreme ..

 

[Virgo]

You have to account for the fact that most of the people that didn't go voting are against the winning candidate (obviously, if they were in favor or liked the winning candidate, they would have gone and voted for him, this is the simple election-vote truth). The people that did not go voting are mostly people that are tired of elections, do not believe in elections, or believe that elections will be rigged and there is no point in going to vote. Only a small number of people that did not vote, would have gone voting and voted for the winning candidate but were unable to because of illness/travel/etc.

You are entitled to your opinion, but that is hardly a widely held view.

If non-voters were assumed as opponents of the winner, then the vast majority of elected officers WORLD-WIDE would have been elected with the majority against them.

In fact, in many countries, turnout is below 50%. In that case, not a single candidate (or any party or ideological current) would have been elected with majority support, since the majority of registered voters chose not to vote. In other countries turnout is only slightly above 50%, which means that only unopposed candidates (with the support of virtually every vote cast) can claim to have the support of the majority.

And even in countries with high voters turnout, only those elected in a huge landslide could claim majority support. For example, with a high turnout of 80%, a candidate who won 60-35% (5% to minor candidates) would still have the support of fewer than 50% of registered voters.

In fact, it could be even worse, if you also consider that some eligible to vote, don't even bother to register as voter.

In the specific case of Higuey, remember that there were 3 "major" candidates, plus several minor ones who got in the 2-5 % range, plus several others who got less but were still available. Among them there were so-called "emerging parties", religious/rightist parties, center-left parties, etc. Pretty tough to argue that those who didn't vote wanted more choices (with the possible exception of communists, since there were no communist candidates, but few woul argue that communists are anywhere close to 30% of the population).

 

[Virgo]

I wonder if many readers here have been to Higuey and along the road to El Seibo ..quasi feudalism is not too far off the mark

I have done what you say.
Why quasi-feudalism? Please, add detail.

 

[Kipling333]

Incumbents always have to work hard because of their supporters complacency ..

 

[rubio_higuey]

@Virgo - you have a certain point, in either case she received only 25% of the total votes and that is the fact.

Having this been discussed widely around Higuey, most business owners do not support Karina, and I talked to a few clients (who have their own facetime with their clients) and nobody they asked, voted for Karina.

In any case, Higuey was won at a landslide by Cholitin, but he lost in Otra Banda (PLR), Nisibon and Veron (PLD), and those are the votes that were added to Karina's. I could understand Otra Banda but I absolutely reject for reason of considering this being unfair and biased, that votes of such remote places as Veron and Nisibon be added to votes of Higuey.

The change to the Ley de Partidos is long overdue.

 

[Virgo]

In any case, Higuey was won at a landslide by Cholitin, but he lost in Otra Banda (PLR), Nisibon and Veron (PLD), and those are the votes that were added to Karina's.

Pretty close to what I predicted in previous posts.

I could understand Otra Banda but I absolutely reject for reason of considering this being unfair and biased, that votes of such remote places as Veron and Nisibon be added to votes of Higuey. The change to the Ley de Partidos is long overdue.

AFAIK the law on political parties is irrelevant. This is related to the way the Dominican territory is organized. Rural or "unincorporated" areas are ascribed to a city or town, whose mayor (Alcalde) is also the head municipal officer for those areas. A rural community may have an "Alcalde ped?neo" who is appointed by the mayor as his representative, and who has a law enforcement role.

 

[rubio_higuey]

What I wanted to say that poeople in say....Veron/Bavaro, did not have the photo of Karina printed on their voting ballots, they had a photo of Manolito (PLD). They voted for Manolito, because they liked Manolito... ignorant of the fact that voting for Manolito means voting for Karina. I would even go as far as saying that many did not even know that voting for Manolito they voted for Karina, and even if they knew, they probably could care less, as having Karina does not affect them in Veron as much as it does affect in Higuey. They get, after all, Manolito, who said he would work on their behalf.

That's why I said that this model was wrong. Let people in Veron/Bavaro vote for whomever they want and circle their faces, but those results should not have any effect on results in Higuey. This semi-mayor cans till be reporting to the chief-mayor, but results of one should not affect the other one's.