The president of the Junta Central Electoral announced that the registration of voters for the election on 16 May election is to close. He said that from 16 December 1994 to 16 December 1995 some 383,000 new voters were registered. Of these only 180,000 have retrieved their electoral cards. He said that 3.9 million people are eligible to vote in the 1996 presidential election. The campaign is scheduled to formally open sometime in January.
Dr. César Estrella Sadhalá, president of the JCE that oversees the organization of elections, believes a record number of Dominicans will vote in 1996. The level of abstentions could be the smallest of the last four elections. According to the statistics of the JCE, 40% of people eligible to vote did not do so in 1990. In 1990 1,973,031 people did not exercise their franchise and 1,302,538 stayed away from the polls. In 1986, some 2,195,455 persons voted and 843,592 failed to do so. In 1994, JCE records show 3,146,710 persons voted and 451,618 stayed away.
Dr. Estrella said that more citizens will vote as they perceive that the election process is transparent, with impartial judges and equal treatment for all the parties.
He said, “There is the assurance that regardless of the party that may win, no matter its colors, the Junta will recognize its victory because it will be the will of the people.”
In addition to Dr. César Estrella Sadhalá, the judges of the JCE for the 1996 election are Aura Celeste Fernández, Juan Sully Bonelly, Luís Mora Guzmán, and Rafael Armando Vallejo Santelises.