The Central Electoral Board (JCE) had said the primaries for the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and the largest opposition party (PRM) would test the automated voting devices and staff before the 2020 general elections.
Dominicans all followed the Sunday, 6 October primary as the votes were impressively streamed live on the Internet. 99% of the results were counted in less than four hours, unprecedented for the Dominican Republic. By Monday, 7 October, nevertheless, the JCE had not released the final results for the PLD primary. Instead, after the results were contested by the apparent loser, former President Leonel Fernández, the JCE removed the vote tallies from its website and agreed to investigate the allegations of irregularities.
The PLD primary demonstrated what could go wrong in the 2020 general election. The team of former President Leonel Fernández says the automated system was hacked to ensure Gonzalo Castillo, who has the backing of President Danilo Medina, be the winner.
Despite early on allegations that automating voting was too vulnerable, the Central Electoral Board convinced the political party of the plusses and purchased the new equipment. The JCE invited local university IT departments to report on the trustworthiness of the system.
The JCE has said that it is open to investigate yet the protocols need to be followed. The credibility of the JCE into the 2020 general election is at stake.
In his early on support for the purchase of the automated voting devices, Julio Cesar Castaños, president of the JCE had stated the automated voting equipment could be audited, since it generates a physical voucher per voter that is saved as evidence of the voter’s true intention. Likewise, the information on the vote count would be transmitted simultaneously to the JCE, the participating political parties, and the media.
José Ignacio Paliza, president of the PRM, says he backs the physical recount of the votes. The position is supported by the Permanent Commission of Political Parties of Latin America (Copppal) and the Citizen Participation (PC) civic watchdog group. Paliza tweeted that all electoral processes should be objectively assessed to eliminate any doubt. The PRM election ended with former President Hipólito Mejía conceding defeat to winner Luis Abinader.
Orlando Jorge Mera, the PRM political delegate to the JCE, says the party backs the request by the Leonelista sector of the PLD that the votes of the primaries be counted manually. He also favors the carrying out of an independent international audit of the automated vote process.
The investigation will also help instate controls for the 2020 general election. Polls show that there is no clear winner for the presidential election scheduled for 17 May 2020 and this could be as close as the PLD primary.
Contrary to the PRM primaries that were only open to registered PRM members, the PLD primary was open to any eligible Dominican voter.
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Z101 Digital
El Caribe
9 October 2019