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Making a candidate in 66 days: Gonzalo Castillo
Gonzalo 48.72%, Fernandez 47.29%; JCE open to auditing source code
Winners and losers in the congressional race
Marbete sales pick up
More free zones
Dominican British Week
Drownings down, electrocutions up
Making a candidate in 66 days: Gonzalo Castillo
On 30 July 2019, the Dominican Republic learned that Public Works Minister Gonzalo Castillo would run for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) presidential candidacy. Previously, President Danilo Medina, had spoken of giving his support to former Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito or former Education Minister Andrés Navarro. But at the last minute, Castillo entered the race. He was chosen by survey.
The standing government cabinet, almost in full, would stand by Castillo and campaign for him as the man who guaranteed the continuing of President Medina's government. Castillo would then go on to defeat Medina's arch-rival, three times President Leonel Fernández, 48.72% to 47.29. With the votes counted, the JCE bulletin on the primary revealed the count was: Gonzalo Castillo 911,923 votes to Fernández's 885,233 votes, a difference of 26,690 votes. The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has yet to announce the official results, though.
An editorial in Diario Libre observes that Dominican voters want new faces. It points out the high number of voters who touched the key for "none" in the primary of 6 October sends the message to the political parties that the candidacies presented are not acceptable.
Gonzalo Castillo did a remake of express candidate-making in the Dominican Republic. First was National District Mayor David Collado, who entered the city race in March 2016 and defeated three-term mayor Roberto Salcedo in the May 2016 election.
Election experts have said that millennials and independents will decide the 2020 general elections.
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...lo-66-dias-de-una-precandidatura-presidencial
https://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/am/del-verbo-ningunear-II14584729
Gonzalo 48.72%, Fernandez 47.29%; JCE open to auditing source code
In a press conference called at the Central Electoral Board (JCE) on the afternoon of Monday, 7 October 2019, the president of the JCE, Julio Cesar Castaños Guzmán spoke with pride of the outcome of the country's first fully automated voting process and defended the country's first primaries organized by the electoral organization.
Speaking about the highly contested primary to choose the presidential candidate for the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Castaños said that the JCE does not have a problem with auditing the source code used for the automated voting procedure. "It does not contain any computer function that could have created a malicious count," he said, disputing claims made by former President Leonel Fernandez and his team.
Castaños said that the simultaneous primaries were carried out in a transparent manner unprecedented in the history of the Dominican Republic. For the first time, the country learned of the winners of an election as the votes were being counted. 99% of the votes had been counted just three hours after the close of the primary. Those interested watched the vote count that was streamed live for everyone to follow.
The presidential pre-candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) Leonel Fernandez denounced on Sunday, 6 October 2019 that an algorithm in the source code of the software had altered the results at the presidential level. His team has yet to formally present their request for the audit. He has requested that a highly reputed company with the backing of the European Union delegation, the United States embassy and the Organization of American States carry out the audit.
Fernández had requested initially a physical count of all the votes. Francisco (Pancho) Alvarez of Participación Ciudadana civic watchdog group told Diario Libre: "It is better to spend a week counting the votes now that the 100% is in instead of months of having to hear recourses in the courts."
Former Public Works Minister, 58-year old businessman Gonzalo Castillo, who ran representing the Danilista faction of the ruling party, defeated three-time President Leonel Fernández, who is also president of the PLD. With 100% of the votes counted, the JCE had said that Gonzalo Castillo received 48.72% of the vote (911,923 votes) against 47.29% (885,233 votes) for Fernández. The other participating pre-candidates were Melanio Paredes (12,751 votes), Maritza Hernández (11,973 votes) and Manuel Crespo (10,335 votes).
Those voting for "none" were 39,539. Former Attorney General Radhames Jimenez argues that 70% of the "none" votes should have been credited to Leonel Fernández.
The JCE has removed the vote count from its website and has not announced the official final tally of the PLD primary.
There were 7,372 voting tables for the primaries in 3,890 locations, with a total of 6,710 pre-candidates. The primaries cost taxpayers RD$2,416,845,800.
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...ra-a-leonel-con-poco-mas-de-un-uno-por-ciento
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...-de-voto-automatizado-sea-auditado-IJ14590239
https://eldia.com.do/leonel-depositara-instancia-ante-jce-para-el-resguardo-de-equipos/
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...har-a-leonel-y-examinar-votaciones-II14581081
https://hoy.com.do/por-que-el-algor...gonzalo-no-se-uso-para-salvar-a-lucia-medina/
https://hoy.com.do/partido-apd-esta...-y-prm-hubo-fraude-electoral-refiere-pruebas/
https://hoy.com.do/exprocurador-dic...ez-es-que-70-votos-saco-ninguno-eran-para-el/
https://hoy.com.do/llas-conclusione...dadana-sobre-primarias-simultaneas-pld-y-prm/
https://pciudadana.org/
https://hoy.com.do/como-fue-que-se-...uevos-detalles-de-irregularidades-que-alegan/
Winners and losers in the congressional race
While most of the focus of the 2019 Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) primary has been on who would win the presidential nominations, the congressional election results are also in.
Five of the current senators for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) will not be up for reelection, having been defeated in the primaries. These are Sonia Mateo, Adriano Sánchez Roa, Prim Pujals, José Emeterio Hazim Frappier (Josecito Hazim) and Manuel de Jesús Guichardo that were defeated by other candidates.
In Dajabón, Sonia Mateo obtained 29.86 % of the votes and was beaten by Gregorio Reyes Castillo (Goyo), with 42.96%.
In Elías Piña, Adriano Sánchez Roa received 33.57% and was beaten by Ivan Lorenzo Suero with 36.88%.
Prim Pujals, representing Samaná, had only 17.6% of the votes with Miguel Ángel Jazmín (Muñeco), reaching 42.03%. Pujals is one of those who had supported former President Leonel Fernández's aspirations to return to the presidency in 2020.
The new PLD candidate for San Pedro de Macoris will be Dr. Francis Peña with 33.69% of the votes, after he defeated Josecito Hazim who lost with 31.44% of the vote.
In Valverde, Mao, Manuel Guichardo, the current representative, obtained 25.88% of the votes, beaten by Ángela Pozo, with 67.13%.
The media reports that most of the candidates for senators running with the backing of President Danilo Medina won in the primary. Not so the sister of President Medina, Lucia Medina, who lost her bid to be the PLD candidate in San Juan de la Maguana. Felix Bautista, who has been named by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt people in the world, will again be running for senator for the province. He has the backing of the Leonel Fernández faction in the ruling party.
José Rafael Vargas, a Fernández supporter, won the candidacy for Espaillat.
Senators Charlie Mariotti (Monte Plata); Amilcar Romero (Duarte); Amarilis Santana (La Romana). Cristina Lizardo (Santo Domingo) and Rafael Paz (National District) that had the support of President Medina, will be the party's candidates for their province of Santo Domingo and the National District, respectively.
In La Vega, Euclides Sánchez repeats as the PLD candidate for senator, as will Aristides Victoria Yeb in Maria Trinidad Sanchez and Felix Nova in Monsignor Nouel. These three are known as Danilistas, as is the senator for Montecristi, Hans Vieluf, who was also the most voted in his province.
In Hato Mayor, Senator Ruben Dario Cruz, better known as Ruben Toyota, will return as a candidate to that position as the standard-bearer of Medina's armies of campaigners.
In Santiago, the Danilista Julio César Valentín, a few years ago a follower of Fernández, won the primary. In Hermanas Mirabal, the PLD senator Luis René Canaán will now run for reelection.
In Barahona, the former Minister of Industry and Commerce José del Castillo, one of the Danilista figures in the region, is the PLD candidate.
Popular deputy Faride Raful was voted the PRM candidate for senator for Santo Domingo. She is the candidate to beat.
People from show business have also made it, including comedian Bolivar Vargas who was elected candidate to deputy for the PLD. Betty Gerónimo will run for deputy for Santo Domingo Province on the PRM ticket. Betty Gerónimo is a former dancer, known for her participation in the TV Show "Divertido con Jochi." She later had her own TV show and married the former mayor of Santo Domingo Norte (Villa Mella), Francisco Rodriguez.
Domingo Contreras (55.97%) and Abel Martínez (60%) won the PLD candidacies to run for mayors of the National District and Santiago in the 2020 municipal elections. Martínez is running for reelection. Singer and composer Manuel Jiménez will run for mayor for Santo Domingo East for the PRM.
https://n.com.do/2019/10/06/mayoria...-de-sector-danilista-ganan-primarias-del-pld/
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...fuera-de-juego-para-otra-gestion-en-la-camara
https://www.diariolibre.com/revista...s-famosos-que-ganaron-candidaturas-OI14582693
Marbete sales pick up
Following the change in the rules that you could not renew your vehicle taxation sticker, "marbete," if you had outstanding traffic fines in the systems, the number of car owners renewing the permit is up. After 20 days have passed since the renewal phase opened, some 156,591 stickers have been purchased, for a value of RD$265 million. However, the objective is to raise RD$2.25 billion.
The Tax Agency has registries for 1,374,321 vehicles. The renewal tariffs are the same as the previous year. This is RD$1,500 for vehicles manufactured prior to 2014 and RD$3,000 for those from 2015 to date.
The regular renewal period ends on 16 December, following which there will be a RD$2,000 fine on top of the cost of the marbete.
https://eldia.com.do/la-dgii-ha-recaudado-rd265-millones-con-renovacion-de-marbete/
More free zones
The National Council of Free Zones (CNZFE) has approved the opening of four new industrial parks and 12 new companies. These are expected to create 1,220 direct jobs.
At a meeting of the CNZFE board, vice minister of Industry and Commerce, Marcelo Puello, the board president, said that the four industrial parks will be located in Boca Chica, Valverde, San Cristóbal and Santiago and call for an investment of RD$866 million and will generate exports of US$6 million a year.
The 12 new companies propose to invest more than RD$2.29 billion and will generate US$21 million in foreign currency. These will be located in Santo Domingo, La Vega, Puerto Plata and Valverde. They will be call centers, cacao, tobacco processing, shoe manufacturing, and furniture companies.
http://cnzfe.gob.do/index.php/es/no...sas-de-zonas-francas-y-4-parques-industriales
Dominican British Week
The British Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Embassy in London have announced the eighth Dominican Week in the United Kingdom, from 17 to 24 October 2019. The event aims to increase business between the DR and the UK. The focus this year is on presentations of how the Dominican Republic has the potential to be the logistics center for the Americas. Besides, it will address and identify concrete actions about climate change.
There will be ministerial meetings with representatives from the United Kingdom, discussing the post-Brexit and trade relationships and how to increase the investment and export between both countries.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Environment are organizing the activities in the Dominican Republic.
https://eldia.com.do/londres-celebrara-la-semana-dominicana/
Drownings down, electrocutions up
According to the Citizen Safety Observatory, 129 people have drowned in the first six months of this year, which is nine less than during the same period last year. The majority (58) of the victims were young men between the ages of 20 and 24 followed by teenagers between 15 and 19 (57) and then 50 children between the ages of 0 and 4 drowned. Most drowned in rivers – 35.7% followed by beaches with 20.9%.
Regarding electrocution, there have been 81deaths during the first six months of the year, up on last year, when the figure was 69 for the same period and 86% of the victims were men.
https://eldia.com.do/entre-enero-y-junio-se-ahogaron-129-personas/
Gonzalo 48.72%, Fernandez 47.29%; JCE open to auditing source code
Winners and losers in the congressional race
Marbete sales pick up
More free zones
Dominican British Week
Drownings down, electrocutions up
Making a candidate in 66 days: Gonzalo Castillo
On 30 July 2019, the Dominican Republic learned that Public Works Minister Gonzalo Castillo would run for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) presidential candidacy. Previously, President Danilo Medina, had spoken of giving his support to former Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito or former Education Minister Andrés Navarro. But at the last minute, Castillo entered the race. He was chosen by survey.
The standing government cabinet, almost in full, would stand by Castillo and campaign for him as the man who guaranteed the continuing of President Medina's government. Castillo would then go on to defeat Medina's arch-rival, three times President Leonel Fernández, 48.72% to 47.29. With the votes counted, the JCE bulletin on the primary revealed the count was: Gonzalo Castillo 911,923 votes to Fernández's 885,233 votes, a difference of 26,690 votes. The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has yet to announce the official results, though.
An editorial in Diario Libre observes that Dominican voters want new faces. It points out the high number of voters who touched the key for "none" in the primary of 6 October sends the message to the political parties that the candidacies presented are not acceptable.
Gonzalo Castillo did a remake of express candidate-making in the Dominican Republic. First was National District Mayor David Collado, who entered the city race in March 2016 and defeated three-term mayor Roberto Salcedo in the May 2016 election.
Election experts have said that millennials and independents will decide the 2020 general elections.
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...lo-66-dias-de-una-precandidatura-presidencial
https://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/am/del-verbo-ningunear-II14584729
Gonzalo 48.72%, Fernandez 47.29%; JCE open to auditing source code
In a press conference called at the Central Electoral Board (JCE) on the afternoon of Monday, 7 October 2019, the president of the JCE, Julio Cesar Castaños Guzmán spoke with pride of the outcome of the country's first fully automated voting process and defended the country's first primaries organized by the electoral organization.
Speaking about the highly contested primary to choose the presidential candidate for the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Castaños said that the JCE does not have a problem with auditing the source code used for the automated voting procedure. "It does not contain any computer function that could have created a malicious count," he said, disputing claims made by former President Leonel Fernandez and his team.
Castaños said that the simultaneous primaries were carried out in a transparent manner unprecedented in the history of the Dominican Republic. For the first time, the country learned of the winners of an election as the votes were being counted. 99% of the votes had been counted just three hours after the close of the primary. Those interested watched the vote count that was streamed live for everyone to follow.
The presidential pre-candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) Leonel Fernandez denounced on Sunday, 6 October 2019 that an algorithm in the source code of the software had altered the results at the presidential level. His team has yet to formally present their request for the audit. He has requested that a highly reputed company with the backing of the European Union delegation, the United States embassy and the Organization of American States carry out the audit.
Fernández had requested initially a physical count of all the votes. Francisco (Pancho) Alvarez of Participación Ciudadana civic watchdog group told Diario Libre: "It is better to spend a week counting the votes now that the 100% is in instead of months of having to hear recourses in the courts."
Former Public Works Minister, 58-year old businessman Gonzalo Castillo, who ran representing the Danilista faction of the ruling party, defeated three-time President Leonel Fernández, who is also president of the PLD. With 100% of the votes counted, the JCE had said that Gonzalo Castillo received 48.72% of the vote (911,923 votes) against 47.29% (885,233 votes) for Fernández. The other participating pre-candidates were Melanio Paredes (12,751 votes), Maritza Hernández (11,973 votes) and Manuel Crespo (10,335 votes).
Those voting for "none" were 39,539. Former Attorney General Radhames Jimenez argues that 70% of the "none" votes should have been credited to Leonel Fernández.
The JCE has removed the vote count from its website and has not announced the official final tally of the PLD primary.
There were 7,372 voting tables for the primaries in 3,890 locations, with a total of 6,710 pre-candidates. The primaries cost taxpayers RD$2,416,845,800.
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...ra-a-leonel-con-poco-mas-de-un-uno-por-ciento
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...-de-voto-automatizado-sea-auditado-IJ14590239
https://eldia.com.do/leonel-depositara-instancia-ante-jce-para-el-resguardo-de-equipos/
https://www.diariolibre.com/actuali...har-a-leonel-y-examinar-votaciones-II14581081
https://hoy.com.do/por-que-el-algor...gonzalo-no-se-uso-para-salvar-a-lucia-medina/
https://hoy.com.do/partido-apd-esta...-y-prm-hubo-fraude-electoral-refiere-pruebas/
https://hoy.com.do/exprocurador-dic...ez-es-que-70-votos-saco-ninguno-eran-para-el/
https://hoy.com.do/llas-conclusione...dadana-sobre-primarias-simultaneas-pld-y-prm/
https://pciudadana.org/
https://hoy.com.do/como-fue-que-se-...uevos-detalles-de-irregularidades-que-alegan/
Winners and losers in the congressional race
While most of the focus of the 2019 Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) primary has been on who would win the presidential nominations, the congressional election results are also in.
Five of the current senators for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) will not be up for reelection, having been defeated in the primaries. These are Sonia Mateo, Adriano Sánchez Roa, Prim Pujals, José Emeterio Hazim Frappier (Josecito Hazim) and Manuel de Jesús Guichardo that were defeated by other candidates.
In Dajabón, Sonia Mateo obtained 29.86 % of the votes and was beaten by Gregorio Reyes Castillo (Goyo), with 42.96%.
In Elías Piña, Adriano Sánchez Roa received 33.57% and was beaten by Ivan Lorenzo Suero with 36.88%.
Prim Pujals, representing Samaná, had only 17.6% of the votes with Miguel Ángel Jazmín (Muñeco), reaching 42.03%. Pujals is one of those who had supported former President Leonel Fernández's aspirations to return to the presidency in 2020.
The new PLD candidate for San Pedro de Macoris will be Dr. Francis Peña with 33.69% of the votes, after he defeated Josecito Hazim who lost with 31.44% of the vote.
In Valverde, Mao, Manuel Guichardo, the current representative, obtained 25.88% of the votes, beaten by Ángela Pozo, with 67.13%.
The media reports that most of the candidates for senators running with the backing of President Danilo Medina won in the primary. Not so the sister of President Medina, Lucia Medina, who lost her bid to be the PLD candidate in San Juan de la Maguana. Felix Bautista, who has been named by Transparency International as one of the most corrupt people in the world, will again be running for senator for the province. He has the backing of the Leonel Fernández faction in the ruling party.
José Rafael Vargas, a Fernández supporter, won the candidacy for Espaillat.
Senators Charlie Mariotti (Monte Plata); Amilcar Romero (Duarte); Amarilis Santana (La Romana). Cristina Lizardo (Santo Domingo) and Rafael Paz (National District) that had the support of President Medina, will be the party's candidates for their province of Santo Domingo and the National District, respectively.
In La Vega, Euclides Sánchez repeats as the PLD candidate for senator, as will Aristides Victoria Yeb in Maria Trinidad Sanchez and Felix Nova in Monsignor Nouel. These three are known as Danilistas, as is the senator for Montecristi, Hans Vieluf, who was also the most voted in his province.
In Hato Mayor, Senator Ruben Dario Cruz, better known as Ruben Toyota, will return as a candidate to that position as the standard-bearer of Medina's armies of campaigners.
In Santiago, the Danilista Julio César Valentín, a few years ago a follower of Fernández, won the primary. In Hermanas Mirabal, the PLD senator Luis René Canaán will now run for reelection.
In Barahona, the former Minister of Industry and Commerce José del Castillo, one of the Danilista figures in the region, is the PLD candidate.
Popular deputy Faride Raful was voted the PRM candidate for senator for Santo Domingo. She is the candidate to beat.
People from show business have also made it, including comedian Bolivar Vargas who was elected candidate to deputy for the PLD. Betty Gerónimo will run for deputy for Santo Domingo Province on the PRM ticket. Betty Gerónimo is a former dancer, known for her participation in the TV Show "Divertido con Jochi." She later had her own TV show and married the former mayor of Santo Domingo Norte (Villa Mella), Francisco Rodriguez.
Domingo Contreras (55.97%) and Abel Martínez (60%) won the PLD candidacies to run for mayors of the National District and Santiago in the 2020 municipal elections. Martínez is running for reelection. Singer and composer Manuel Jiménez will run for mayor for Santo Domingo East for the PRM.
https://n.com.do/2019/10/06/mayoria...-de-sector-danilista-ganan-primarias-del-pld/
https://listindiario.com/la-republi...fuera-de-juego-para-otra-gestion-en-la-camara
https://www.diariolibre.com/revista...s-famosos-que-ganaron-candidaturas-OI14582693
Marbete sales pick up
Following the change in the rules that you could not renew your vehicle taxation sticker, "marbete," if you had outstanding traffic fines in the systems, the number of car owners renewing the permit is up. After 20 days have passed since the renewal phase opened, some 156,591 stickers have been purchased, for a value of RD$265 million. However, the objective is to raise RD$2.25 billion.
The Tax Agency has registries for 1,374,321 vehicles. The renewal tariffs are the same as the previous year. This is RD$1,500 for vehicles manufactured prior to 2014 and RD$3,000 for those from 2015 to date.
The regular renewal period ends on 16 December, following which there will be a RD$2,000 fine on top of the cost of the marbete.
https://eldia.com.do/la-dgii-ha-recaudado-rd265-millones-con-renovacion-de-marbete/
More free zones
The National Council of Free Zones (CNZFE) has approved the opening of four new industrial parks and 12 new companies. These are expected to create 1,220 direct jobs.
At a meeting of the CNZFE board, vice minister of Industry and Commerce, Marcelo Puello, the board president, said that the four industrial parks will be located in Boca Chica, Valverde, San Cristóbal and Santiago and call for an investment of RD$866 million and will generate exports of US$6 million a year.
The 12 new companies propose to invest more than RD$2.29 billion and will generate US$21 million in foreign currency. These will be located in Santo Domingo, La Vega, Puerto Plata and Valverde. They will be call centers, cacao, tobacco processing, shoe manufacturing, and furniture companies.
http://cnzfe.gob.do/index.php/es/no...sas-de-zonas-francas-y-4-parques-industriales
Dominican British Week
The British Chamber of Commerce in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Embassy in London have announced the eighth Dominican Week in the United Kingdom, from 17 to 24 October 2019. The event aims to increase business between the DR and the UK. The focus this year is on presentations of how the Dominican Republic has the potential to be the logistics center for the Americas. Besides, it will address and identify concrete actions about climate change.
There will be ministerial meetings with representatives from the United Kingdom, discussing the post-Brexit and trade relationships and how to increase the investment and export between both countries.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Environment are organizing the activities in the Dominican Republic.
https://eldia.com.do/londres-celebrara-la-semana-dominicana/
Drownings down, electrocutions up
According to the Citizen Safety Observatory, 129 people have drowned in the first six months of this year, which is nine less than during the same period last year. The majority (58) of the victims were young men between the ages of 20 and 24 followed by teenagers between 15 and 19 (57) and then 50 children between the ages of 0 and 4 drowned. Most drowned in rivers – 35.7% followed by beaches with 20.9%.
Regarding electrocution, there have been 81deaths during the first six months of the year, up on last year, when the figure was 69 for the same period and 86% of the victims were men.
https://eldia.com.do/entre-enero-y-junio-se-ahogaron-129-personas/
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