A Gallup-El Siglo poll carried out 16-21 September among 1,200 possible voters throughout the nation showed that 45.4% of Dominicans would vote for the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), 30.3% for the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) and 15.9% for the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC). In the 1996 presidential elections, a coalition of the PRSC/Balaguer forces backing the PLD edged out the PRD from the presidency. While the PRD achieved the most votes ever cast for a president in a Dominican elections, a previous constitutional reform made it necessary to achieve 50%+1 of the vote to win in a first round in those elections. In the second voting round held 45 days afterwards, the PLD received the support of Dr. Balaguer and his followers in the PRSC. The PRSC/Balaguer coalition won the 1996 elections with 51.25% of the vote, defeating the PRD and allies by 71,741 votes. Note that during those elections the PRSC was divided among those who voted for the PRSC candidate in the elections, Jacinto Peynado, and those who followed the recommendations of Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, and cast their vote in the favor of the PLD presidential candidate, Dr. Leonel Fernández Reyna and against the PRD presidential candidate, the late Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez.
