This Sunday at 7:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time) the polls opened for the presidential election in the Dominican Republic, with the current president, Luis Abinader, as the main favorite.
The plenary session of the Central Electoral Board has formally begun voting in an opening ceremony. Meanwhile, hundreds of people were already queuing to vote at polling stations before opening time. The polls will close at 5:00 p.m.
In total there are 8,145,548 people registered with the right to vote, of which more than 10 percent (about 863,000) correspond to residents outside the country.
Abinader is the candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM). Behind him, the polls place the prominent Leonel Fernández, who already held the Dominican Presidency between 1996 and 2000, and later from 2004 to 2012. The former president, 70 years old, is running under the acronym of the progressive People’s Force Party (FP).
In third place and with just over ten percent of the votes, the demographic studies place Abel Martínez, a 52-year-old lawyer who is running for the lists of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), which in the past elevated Fernández. . Martínez was a prosecutor in Santiago and in 2016 he was promoted to Mayor of the city.
Along with these three candidates, the list of presidential candidates is completed by six other names, among which the former Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas stands out, who is running for the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), one of the main political parties in the country.
In addition to choosing who will be their president for the next four years, the 8.1 million Dominicans called to the polls must elect the 32 senators and 190 deputies that make up the Congress of the Republic. In addition, the Dominican Republic will renew its 20 representatives in the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).
