Description of Electoral System

Political Organization: Democratic Republic.

Form of Government: Presidential.

• National Executive Power: The Executive has long been the dominant branch in the Dominican governmental system. The President of the Dominican Republic is both the Head of State and the Head of Government, and is Commander in Chief of the armed forces. A cabinet of ministers ("Secretarios de Estado") that he designates assists the President in his functions.
• National Legislative Power: is exercised by a bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la República composed by the Senate or Senado (32 seats) and the Chamber of Deputies or Cámara de Diputados (178 seats).

Electoral System

The President of the Republic: is elected along with the Vice President on the same ticket by popular vote for a four-year term with a Two-Round System (TRS), and they can be re-elected only for a consecutive period, according to the last amendment made to the Constitution in 2002.

The Congress of the Republic:

• Chamber of Deputies: The lower house has 178 members, elected by popular vote to serve 4-year terms with the List Proportional Representation (List PR) system in accordance to each province, as follows: one deputy is elected for every 50,000 inhabitants plus fraction exceeding 25,000, but never less than two.
• Senate: its 32 members are elected by popular vote to serve 4-year terms in single-seat constituencies.

Elections 2012

6'586,837 registered citizens will have the opportunity, on Sunday, May 20th, 2012, to attend to the 14,287 polling sites that will be installed in the 4,094 polling centres along the country for the presidential election. Additionally, the more than 300,000 Dominicans that reside overseas will have the chance to vote for the 7 seats for their representatives at the Congress.

Each polling station consists of five persons, preferably selected from among the citizens of the community, that will receive the votes of their neighbors.

Elections 2010

On Sunday, May 16th, 2010 the elections, where 4,036 offices were at stake (32 senators; 178 deputies; 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament —Parlacen— and their substitutes; and, municipal authorities), took place. For that purpose 13,250 polling stations were installed to receive the 6'116,397 registered citizens.

In this opportunity, the elected congressmen will stay in office for 6 years, so that the legislative elections can match the 2016 presidential elections.

Elections 2008

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

On May 16th elections took place for the president and vice-president, who will took possession on August 16th, 2008.

Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna and Rafael Alburquerque De Castro of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) were reelected as president and vice-president respectively, after obtaining 53.83% of the valid votes that  were cast that Friday. Miguel Vargas Maldonado, of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, got 40.48% of the votes, leaving 5.59% to the five remaining candidates. The results can be consulted at the Central Electoral Board's website, which is the insitution in charge of organising the elections in Dominican Republic.

Had none of the candidates obtained the absolute majority (50% of the vote plus one more vote) a runoff would take place on June 30th, since there must be 45 days between the first and second round. In the runoff only the two candidates who had received the highest number of votes the first time around.

The president is elected by popular vote at the polling stations (Colegios electorales) where the citizens themselves receive those votes, and then counts them. It is the citizens who tell the Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral) who obtained how many votes, so that the list of elected candidates (Relación de Candidatos elegidos) can be published.

More information can be found at the Spanish version of this same page.

The 2006 Parliamentary elections were won by the Progressive Bloc led by the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), which took 96 of the 178 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 of the 32 Senate seats.

 

Get in touch with the Centre through our e-mail or phone us at:

+52 (55) 5449-0446

+52 (55) 5449-0450

To send a fax:

+52 (55) 5449-0448

+52 (55) 5449-0457