Volunteer Life Stories

Presidential Elections in the D.R. by Adonis Ovalles

(as explained/written by a Dominican friend & now translated)

The sixteenth of May 2008 the citizens of the Dominican Republic went to the ballot box to elect their president for the next four years, this being a historic act since the form of government is democratic and participated in by all the sectors of national and international life. This festival of democracy extends an invitation for said gala celebration where there does not exist race, color, social status nor academic levels that influence the participation of the people in general from its base to its highest spheres.

The organism charged with the organization of the elections is called the Central Electoral Assembly and for months it had been training and preparing interested persons to work in the elections. Formed of five persons they are called the Electoral Colleges. Each person has a specific job and responsibility to complete. The electoral college is comprised in the following manner: president, first member, second member, secretary, and substitute for the secretary. In addition political delegates from the main parties (this year there were seven) that participate in the electoral contest to make sure it is transparent.

The presidential elections are detached by being separate from the congressional elections, such that in these they only elect the president and vice president of the Republic, not the senators, deputies and local governors that are elected in other elections two years from now. The designated day for voting, being this year May 16th, the members of the electoral colleges arrive at 5:30 a.m. to their respective locations that are located throughout the country, and they prepare the materials to begin the electoral process at 6 a.m. This process will last 12 hours so that all the citizens have sufficient time to execute their right to vote, thus having until 6 p.m. when the process ends and the counting of votes begins in each electoral college and the filing of the original record is turned into the Central Electoral Assembly, a copy is given to each of the political delegates and another copy is posted on the door of the entrance to each electoral college so that the people can observe who or which party won in that college.

My notes:

Election Day is a holiday with businesses & schools closed and no alcohol sold.

Primaries were held a year ago.

Posters and speeches had been continual for months.

Campaigning was especially loud and constant for weeks before election.

Leonel Fernández was re-elected President.