PLD: 29 senadur?as

[Chirimoya]

from DR1 news: On the one hand,

JCE estimates voting was 58%
The Administrative Chamber of the Central Electoral Board says that the abstention rate in the congressional and municipal election was 42%. 58% of the population voted, said Roberto Rosario, president of the Administrative Chamber. He said this is at the same level as in the previous legislative and municipal election in 2006.
He said annulled votes would be about 80,000, less than during the 2006 congressional and municipal election when they were 100,000.
The Organization of American States (OAS) monitoring mission on election day had estimated an abstention rate of 65%.

and on the other:

OAS mission says voting was 35%
The Organization of American States observers mission says that the abstention rate in the 2010 municipal and congressional election was 65%, not 42% as announced by Roberto Rosario, president of the Administrative Chamber of the Central Electoral Board (JCE). Moreover, the OAS mission also differs from the JCE in that it says that there were 50% more annulled votes than in the 2006 election. The JCE says the percentage of annulled votes was 41%, the same as in 2006.
As of Bulletin 11, annulled votes totaled 153,000. In 2006 the total of annulled votes in the congressional election was 102,000. In San Juan de la Maguana, for instance, the number of annulled votes was 6,646, or 6.12% of the votes issued.
As of Bulletin 11, in the Province of Santo Domingo, 25,264 votes were annulled, or 5.8% of the votes. In Santiago, there were 11,022 annulled votes, or 4.2% of the total. In the National District, annulled votes totaled 9,493 or 3.2%.
Youth groups had promoted writing NONE in the ballot to express their disillusionment with the candidates running in the election. These votes will be annulled, but the difference in totals annulled in 2006 and those in 2010 could be attributed to the youth movement.
Adam Blackwell, head of the OAS mission, says they estimated a 65% abstention rate, but that the formal statistic would be provided by the JCE.
Blackwell recommended a re-design of the ballot, which he said was difficult for many voters to understand.
He also recommended more equity between the parties. He said the observers witnessed the use of government resources in the campaign.

 

[cobraboy]

The esteemed OAS and their international minions need to go back to the drawing board and figure out a better statistical model before looking like4 fools again...

Seems that recdently "OAS" and "inaccurate" are synonomous...

 

[suarezn]

This should be very easy to compute. Take the number of votes and divide by registered voters. According to JCE there 6,116,397 registered voters. Not sure how many votes, but someone could calculate them by adding them up. Anyhow looking at several sheets it looks like in most places the range was between 60 - 75% of voters turnout. The exceptions were the large provinces (Santo Domingo and Santiago) where the turnout was as low as 38%. Of course these have the most people, so that brings down the overall turnout rate.

The trend seems to be that the larger the town, the more educated the population, the less they were inclined to vote. For instance Dajabon, Independencia, and most other border provinces had 70%+ turnout which is ironic since they are the ones getting shafted worse than any other area of the country.

 

[Adrian Bye]

60-75% voter turnout is pretty impressive.

is that the reality in the border towns for those who live there? have 60-75% of the people you know voted?

 

[Robert]

Maybe the JCE numbers are based on votes cast and the OAS numbers on actual voters that turned up to vote? That being the case, I could understand the difference

It was good to see Adam Blackwell as part of the OAS team, he's a smart guy and in my opinion, by far the best Canadian ambassador since I have been here.

 

[Lambada]

Maybe the JCE numbers are based on votes cast and the OAS numbers on actual voters that turned up to vote? That being the case, I could understand the difference

Me too. It would have been difficult to get those dead people who 'voted' to turn up, for example.:cheeky:

 

[? bient?t]

Two interesting articles in today's Diario Libre/English...one on how the alliances got the PLD 13 Senate seats and the other blasting Miguel Vargas' leadership and policies in these elections.
One said that in Pedernales the difference was 4 votes but that couldhave been a typo.



HB

Diario Libre en ingl?s has the right numbers, straight from the JCE website:

"Of these provinces, the least differences between the PRD and the PLD and its allies was in Pedernales, where the difference was 14 votes."

 

[suarezn]

60-75% voter turnout is pretty impressive.

is that the reality in the border towns for those who live there? have 60-75% of the people you know voted?

These are the numbers from JCE.DO | Junta Central Electoral de la Rep?blica Dominicana

I believe it as in these places people get pretty involved in the politics. I know in Cotui most people I know voted (Lots of them also sold their cedulas).

 

[A.Hidalgo]

It's pretty typical for non-presidential elections to have significantly lower turnout. It's true in the DR as well as the US.

I'm not sure it's "discontent." Broad discontent would energize opposing parties, once again, look at the US both in '08 and the upcoming '10 elections...

Never confuse apathy for discontent.

Weather apathy or discontent the time is ripe for someone to fill in the vacuum, and its not going to be the PRD or the PRSC. You couldn't energize them even with an atomic plant.

 

[A.Hidalgo]

^Whether^ not weather. Its hot here:laugh:

 

[Lambada]

Looking ahead to 2012...

He can't because the new constitution that he rammed through, prohibits more than two consecutive terms, but he is eligible to run again in 2016. So its two terms, one off for presidential elections as long as the person wants to keep going.aranoid:

But of course he can ram another updated constitution again.:cheeky:

Some interesting articles around as to how this could be achieved. Either as you suggest, an amendment to new Constitution or going to the Constitutional Tribunal or..........a referendum.
Presidente Leonel Fern?ndez: tres v?as para continuar en el poder m?s all? de 2012

or according to 'Doctor Trajano Vidal Potentini entiende que con una simple consulta donde la mitad m?s uno emita su voto favorable, Fern?ndez puede respostularse, sin la necesidad de reformar la Constituci?n de la Rep?blica ni hacer una ley de refer?ndum'
Justicia y Transparencia afirma Leonel se puede repostular en el 2012

And this one sets it in context - worth reading:
CONTINUISMO VS. CONTINUIDAD: El dilema hist?rico dominicano