Almost 100% of the population believes that corruption is a serious problem for the DR. So says the poll carried out by the Gallup Organization for Hoy newspaper. Over 85% of those questioned felt that “impunity” or being above the law, was an important issue still prevalent in the Dominican Republic. Barely 2% of those interviewed thought that there was no such thing as impunity before the law in the country.
In another area, the poll found that there were too many taxes, and only 18% thought that the tax burden was correct. In the north of the country 71% of those polled thought that there were too many taxes and in the east 69.4% felt the same. More importantly, the majority of the citizenry, as reflected by the poll, are unaware of the fact that the government is working on another tax reform. A staggering 59% of those questioned said they did not know about this important fact. Of the 40% that did know about the tax reform project, most live in metropolitan Santo Domingo, while those that were ignorant of the facts live mainly in the north (71%), south (64.7%) and east (64.5%). One third of the women surveyed knew about the tax reform while almost half (48%) of the men knew about it. Not surprisingly, 45% of the population that took part in the poll thought that the government was not spending its money wisely or administering it very well, and 41% thought otherwise.
In a section of the poll that appears to be a sort of popularity contest related to important public figures, Leonel Fernandez, Jaime David Fernandez, Elena Viyella de Paliza, Agripino Nunez Collado, Jay Payano and Francisco Dominguez Brito scored highest and, logically enough, former President Hipolito Mejia received only a 15% favorable response among the group of opposition leaders. Jose (Josecito) Hazim got the highest marks at 46.3% approval rating.