Under a Coalition for Transparency and Institutionalism, several non-governmental organizations, business organizations and universities will be making voters aware about the background of politicians opting to be the next legislators or city mayors. The activity is sponsored by the Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice (Finjus), the National Council of Business (Conep), the Universidad Tecnologica de Santo Domingo (Intec), the Dominican Center for Advisory and Legal Research (Cedail) and Participacion Ciudadana civil society group. Under the slogan, “Your informed vote can make a difference,” the campaign seeks to promote thoughtful and responsible voting, based on distributing information on who is who and what have they done in the past among the candidates.
When announcing the campaign, Participacion Ciudadana revealed the results of a survey carried out by the Center for Research and Social Studies (CIES) that showed that 40% of the population does not have faith in the Congress, and that 72% believes there is a lot of corruption in the legislature, while only 37% says they have a little trust in the legislators. Commenting on the survey, sociologist Ramon Tejada Holguin said that the survey revealed that only 12% of those consulted feel that the legislators represent the people’s interests, and 19% said that the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies were trustworthy. Only 17% believe there is only a small amount of corruption among legislators.