The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) Román Jáquez used the forum of the May business lunch of the American Chamber of Commerce to sum up the preparations for the 19 May 2024 presidential and congressional elections and to urge political parties to rise to the democratic challenge ahead, as reported in El Caribe.
The presentation by the president of the JCE was attended by the main executives of the Amchamdr, led by its president, Edwin de los Santos and executive vice president, William Malamud who hosted the plenary of the JCE. In addition to Román Jaquez, other JCE members in attendance were Dolores Fernández, Samir Chami Isa, Rafael Vallejos and Patricia Lorenzo. Representatives of the political parties also attended.
Polls show President Luis Abinader will sweep the election with a comfortable lead and the ruling party will increase its majority in both houses of the National Congress.
Jaquez called on political leaders to instruct their followers to act with civility on election day. He
gave full guarantees that the setup of the election “is moving in full sail”. He urged political actors to continue betting on the country’s democratic institutions.
“11 days before the May 19 elections, this plenary session of the Central Electoral Board reiterates to the entire country and abroad the guarantees of a clean, civic, safe, peaceful, dignified, transparent and fair election; and the organization of the electoral process is going from strength to strength and with full sail, firm in ensuring that the popular will deposited at the polls reach a successful port, the port that it should be, the port of democracy,” he said.
The president of the JCE was the guest speaker of the American Chamber of Commerce (Amchamdr) for the close of the series of presentations the presidential candidates have subsequently had during the past monthly lunch encounters.
The president of the JCE highlighted the measures that the election organizing entity has taken after the observations made by the electoral observation missions that came for the 18 February 2024 municipal election and those made by the political parties to improve the election process.
Among the actions is resolution 18/2024 that establishes the security of the chain of custody in polling stations on voting day by the Military Electoral Police.
Likewise, resolution 30/2024 that creates the electoral precinct coordinator, which defines the functions of this personnel.
The JCE will be reinforcing the prohibition of the installation of tents and tables by candidates and political parties outside voting stations.
Jaquez says that through Friday, 17 May 2024 at 4pm duplicates of the identity and voting card will be issued. “This facilitates a greater level of transparency and citizen participation in the process,” he said.
He said that the JCE is committed to facilitating the right to vote for all citizens and that is why it has implemented the pilot plan for voting at home for people with disabilities who live in the National District and Santo Domingo province. Jáquez said that for these purposes the list of people who will vote from home has already closed.
He also highlighted the implementation of the vote in prison for preventive prisoners in 21 prisons in the country. He reported that this registry closed with 4,296 registered and they will only have the right to vote for the presidential level.
The president of the JCE highlighted the IT solutions that the JCE implemented in the framework of this year’s elections that proved successful when implemented first in the primaries of the political parties and then for the municipal elections on 18 February.
“For the first time in electoral history, all electoral boards five days after the elections had counted and filed 100% of the general voting relations in their respective municipalities, promptly offering the Dominican people a definitive electoral result reflecting the popular will,” Jaquez highlights.
The president of the JCE explained the logistics so that Dominicans living abroad can vote in their cities of residence. He said that of the 8,145,548 eligible voters, 863,785 are Dominican expats, or approximately 11% of the total vote.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
AmCham
Diario Libre
JCE
9 May 2024