Recently, towards the end of the month of May, the Dominican Republic held its presidential elections. The Dominican Republic can be a considered a “two party system” because the PLD and PRD hold most of the offices. However, there are a variety of other parties. The PLD is the Dominican Liberation Party, while the PRD is the Dominican Revolutionary Party.

Before I go into my analysis of the elections, I would like to mention that various international organizations have found the elections to be “free and fair.” Among these organizations are the Organization of American States (OAS) and the U.S. embassy to the Dominican Republic.

The current president of the Dominican Republic is Leonel Fernandez, who represent the PLD. Since Fernandez has already been in office for the maximum amount of consecutive years, he could not run for elections this year. Therefore the representative of the PLD in this years elections was Danilo Medina. But get this – Medina’s vice president is Margarita Fernandez, the wife Leonel Fernandez and the first lady of the Dominican Republic.

News flash, does this not seem funny to anyone? It is perfectly legal, but think about it this way – could you see Michelle Obama as John Kerry’s Vice President in the upcoming elections? Uhhh? One can speculate that Margarita will be Leonel’s key to retaining a voice in presidential matters.

The PLD did end up winning the elections and Danilo plans to take power in August. Throughout the country people are calling for fraud but nothing can be done. Various agencies find the elections free and fair. What more can be done?

Dominican Republic, Elections, Fraud, PLD, PRD Uncategorized