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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Dominican Republic
Index
The electoral system in place as of 1989 could trace
its
roots to the death of Trujillo. Following the dictator's
assassination in 1961, the Dominican government asked the
Organization of American States (OAS) to send a technical
advisory mission to the country to help set up a system of
free
elections. Upon the mission's recommendation, the country
established a hierarchy of electoral boards. The Central
Electoral Board, consisting of three members appointed by
the
Senate, was the highest of these bodies.
Members of the Central Electoral Board were appointed
to
serve twelve-year terms. The Board chose the members of
the
provincial and municipal boards, who served at its
pleasure. The
Board issued regulations to ensure free and honest
elections;
directed the distribution of ballots, equipment, and
voting
materials; and supervised the functioning of the
lower-level
electoral boards.
The Central Electoral Board was given responsibility
for
printing ballots for each Dominican political party. To
facilitate voting by those unable to read, each party's
ballot
was printed a different color. The ballots also bore the
emblems
of the parties participating, as an additional aid to
nonreaders.
Election day was a national holiday; alcoholic beverages
could
not be sold that day, and the polls were open from 6:00
a.m. to
6:00 p.m.
Voting was free, secret, and obligatory for both men
and
women. Suffrage was granted to everyone eighteen years old
or
older, and to every married person regardless of age.
Members of
the police or the armed forces were ineligible to vote, as
were
those who had lost their political and civil rights, such
as
incarcerated criminals. Elections were regulated by law,
and they
were administered by the Central Electoral Board.
Dominican elections could be breathtaking affairs. In
1978
losing candidate Balaguer impounded the ballot boxes and
seemed
about to steal the election; pressure from the United
States
forced a resumption of the vote count, which led to
Guzmán's
victory. The 1986 presidential election also produced
controversy. This time Balaguer won, but the losing
candidate of
the PRD Jacobo Majluta Azar, claimed fraud and refused to
concede. Majluta demanded a recount and threatened that
violence
might result otherwise. In this case, an independent
electoral
commission headed by the archbishop of Santo Domingo
intervened
in the dispute, verified the Balaguer victory, and
persuaded
Majluta to accept its independent vote tally.
Since 1978, elections had gained legitimacy as a means
of
choosing the president and other leaders. The elections of
1982
and 1986 had generally been fair, honest, competitive, and
free,
but elections still represented only one of several
possible
means to power in the Dominican Republic, the others being
a
skillfully executed coup d'état or a heroic revolution.
Moreover,
Dominican elections did not necessarily bestow the
definitive
legitimacy usually accorded an elected government in more
developed democratic nations.
Data as of December 1989
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