According to the El Caribe and Hoy, voting was massive, and the ambassadors, delegates and other foreign observers congratulated the Dominican people for their good behavior during the election process. The chief justice of the JCE, Luis Arias, commented that in spite of a few violent outbreaks voting was normal and very positive. Former President of Colombia, Andres Pastrana spoke of his satisfaction with the high turnout of voters.
?The impression that we have is that these are exemplary elections,? said Hans Hertell, the US ambassador. Canadian Ambassador Adam Blackwell congratulated the JCE and said that international experts told him that these were the best organized elections in America, as reported in Hoy newspaper.
Ambassadors Hans Hertell (US), Adam Blackwell (Canada), Maria Figa Lopez-Palop (Spain) and Eva Kendeffy (Germany), along with European Union representative Miguel Amado, visited the National District Electoral Board and watched the process unfold. The diplomats were part of more than 200 foreign observers and 6,513 Dominican volunteers who monitored Sunday?s elections.
A common thread in all of today?s election news is the fact that the people turned out in great numbers, and by all accounts anxious to exercise their voting rights. According to the JCE, only 0.4% of voters were denied or turned away because of errors in their registration cards or some other issue and most of these cases were resolved later in the day.
The rains were not a problem in the vast majority of polling stations, although in Nagua and Rio San Juan helicopters were needed to bring the results in from the countryside because of the impassable roads.
In spite of Murphy?s Law, by 11am yesterday over 50% of the voters had completed the process, according to reports in Hoy.