The main problem of those who criticize politicians is that they compare them with perfection rather than reality. What Americans call corruption seems to be a built in feature of Dominican politics. In Barahona, there is a PRD guy that is is a "precandidato" for diputado, and he has been giving out rechargeable lights to people in his district who lose their electricity (for which I am sure they pay nothing, because no poor person in Barahona pays for electricity). Another precandidato is passing out vitamins and other maternity stuff to pregnant women. In the US, this would be considered corruption. Of course, paying a TV station to accuse all the other candidates of pretty much anything except cannibalism, would be okay in the US, and the poor would all live in darkness and the babies would be born less well nourished.
I am not a Dominican, so I am not one to judge. I can see both sides of this, however.
It seems to me that ideally, every Dominican president should tell people to pay for their electricity and water, explaining that these are services that are not free. And I am pretty sure that such a person would get no votes from anyone I know in Barahona, where those I know think that the ITBIS is enough to provide them with sporadic electricity and water, or perhaps full time water and electricity.