The Junta Central Electoral says all is ready for the 16 May congressional and municipal elections. Dominicans will choose 30 senators, 149 deputies, 115 mayors and 756 city councilmen on Saturday. The Dominican political system is primarily fractionated in three parties – Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) and the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC). In the 1994-1998 Congress, the PLD has one senator, the PRSC has 14 senators and the PRD has 18 senators. In the Chamber of Deputies, the PLD has 13 senators, the PRSC has 50 and the PRD has 57. While the PRSC and the PRD hope to hold on to their shares in Congress, the government PLD party seeks to significantly increase its representation. The government department in charge of organizing the elections explained that the first results will be presented on TV and radio at 10 pm on Saturday. Juan Sully Bonnelly, president of the Junta Central Electoral, said that the updates on the elections will be issued every two hours. Some 4,129,554 Dominicans can vote in the 10,174 voting stations all around the country. Some 70,000 persons are employed in the elections organization. Santo Domingo voters – 1,267,225 citizens – can vote in the 3,067 voting stations in Santo Domingo to choose the city senator, 44 deputies and 88 city councilmen and their replacements. Some 15,000 persons will staff the city voting stations. Elections in the DR are a tedious process. Women need to line up from 6 to 8 am and later vote from 8:30 to 1 pm. Men vote in the afternoon, having to line up from 1 to 3 pm to later vote from 3:30 to 6 pm. The key officers, or judges, of the elections are Juan Sully Bonnelly Batlle, Alejandro Asmar Sanchez, Rafael Vallejo Santelises, Luis Mora Guzmán and Cirilo Collado Luna. Participación Ciudadana, a civic group, criticized what it called the excessive expenditures in television, cable TV and radio propaganda. The group said that in March and April, the PRSC spent RD$7.4 million, the PRD RD$12.3 million and the PLD $18.2 million in advertising.
