According to the first bulletin issued by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) at 12:10am this morning, Monday 16 May 2016, President Danilo Medina has succeeded in his bid for a second term. The third bulletin from the JCE issued at 7am today gives Medina 62% compared to 35.13% for Luis Abinader of the PRM. Political analysts attribute the win to the strong Danilo brand. Media commentators point out that Medina could win with the highest percentage ever achieved by any Dominican presidential candidate.
Medina received 1,571,378 compared to 891,907 votes for Abinader. In 2012, Medina won with 51.21%, or 2,323,150 votes. The PRD, which split into the PRD and the PRM in 2016, received 46.9% of the vote or 2,129,997 votes in 2012.
The JCE authorized a one-hour extension of the vote yesterday, Sunday, 15 May 2016. The JCE authorized the extension on the grounds that several centers had experienced technical problems in the morning, which delayed the opening of the centers. Voting should have started at 6am and closed at 6pm nationwide. JCE president Roberto Rosario made the announcement to extend voting at 5:55pm.
Technical problems also affected the completion of the count by the electronic devices as promoted by the JCE. According to some reports, the fingerprint readers did not work in many voting centers. The head of the Organization of American States observer mission, former Colombian President Andres Pastrana said it was fortunate that the JCE had agreed to give prevalence to the traditional manual vote over the new electronic system. The JCE said that 3,000 technicians had resigned at the last minute, affecting the management of the election.
The JCE was criticized for releasing preliminary news of the results before the close of the vote. The political parties had agreed that the manual results would be released first and the first official bulletin was issued shortly after midnight, at 12:10am on 16 May.
Although Abinader’s 35% is stronger than was projected in several polls, some analysts say he could have done better and attributed his weak performance to campaign errors n in that the opposition candidate focused on denouncing corruption and the Medina administration’s failures instead of focusing on what he would do differently, as well as a final push where he emphasized he would double welfare programs already in effect, and his focus at the end on the manual vote vs. electronic vote aspects of the election.
Preliminary results also show the ruling PLD party maintaining its control of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
Four parties will maintain their status as majority political parties, the PLD, PRM and their allies the PRD and PRSC.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2016/05/16/419485/segundo-boletin-danilo-medina-62-y-luis-abinader-35-13-http://acento.com.do/2016/politica/8349114-andres-pastrana-afortunadamente-se-implemento-conteo-manual/
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/politica/danilo-primer-candidato-presidencial-que-supera-el-60-CF3698589
