The Sunday, 19 May 2024 presidential and congressional election is costing RD$5 billion, the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Román Jáquez Liranzo says on telling the nation all is ready for the people to go exercise their democratic right and duty. 1,706 candidates seek 264 positions, representing 34 political parties.
The Dominican people will elect the President and Vice President, 32 senators and 190 deputies, including 178 for the National District and provinces, 7 overseas deputies and 20 Parlacen deputies and substitutes.
During his participation in the Weekly Lunch of the Corripio Communications Group, the experienced elections official made the point that the people on Sunday will elect the President and Vice President and the legislators. But, he said these representatives will also decide the selection of the the Constitutional Court (TC), Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the Chamber of Accounts and the JCE itself.
The electoral roll is made up of 8,145,548 voters at a general level, of which 7,281,763 are registered to vote in the national territory and another 863,785 abroad once the polls open at 7am. Voting closes at 5pm. The JCE expects to announce the winners on the same day, but has a 21 May deadline to do so.
As a novelty in this election, Jaquez Liranzo told the Grupo Corripio journalists each voting station will have a precinct coordinator, a JCE employee trained to assist citizens so that the voting process flows in accordance to the law. Likewise, the plenary session approved that the nine parties that have presented presidential candidates each have been assigned a precinct delegate.
In terms of security, 55,000 specially-trained electoral military police will be on duty in the election. In addition, there will be about 4,000 others in reserve.
Voting abroad will take place in 46 locations in 35 countries through the 23 Electoral Logistics Coordination Offices (OCLEE), responsible for the setup.
Each voter in the Dominican Republic will receive three ballots and is asked to mark a check, X or line in the box of the candidate of preference and then fold the ballot in four and deposit in the corresponding three boxes.
As of midnight on Thursday, all campaigning is prohibited.
The JCE says the first bulletin will be issued at 8:30pm or when 20% of the votes is counted. The vote count will then be updated every 15 minutes.
The results of the presidential level will be announced first and then those of the legislative level.
International observation missions are here representing the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the European Union, among other entities linked to the issues of democracy and elections.
Likewise, some 20 former Presidents will be here to watch over the election, including Alberto Fernández, from Argentina; Martín Torrijos, from Panama and Andrés Pastrana from Colombia.
El Caribe reports more than 151,430 persons are on the JCE payroll for the election operation working in the 18,292 voting stations and operation centers in the DR and abroad. Add to this the around 60,000 of the electoral military police.
There are 16,726 voting stations in the DR and 4,286 abroad (in 26 cities in 25 countries). Each voting station has a registry of no more than 600 voters.
The JCE has printed 25,458,688 voting ballots for the three levels of the election:
8,797,192 for the presidential and vice presidential level
7,864,304 for the senate elections and 7,864,304 for the deputy election
932,888 for the overseas deputies
To ensure prompt results, the JCE has installed 20,000 scanning, digitizing, printing and transmission equipment. This is 18,068 in the DR and 2,015 abroad.
There will be voting in 21 jails, where 4,296 persons with sentences pending, are registered to vote.
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Hoy
El Caribe
JCE
16 May 2024