Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: Government and Politics
Electoral System
Voting is free, secret, and obligatory for both men and
women. Suffrage is available to anyone eighteen years old or
older, or any married person regardless of age. Members of the
police or armed forces are ineligible to vote, as are those who
have lost their political and civil rights, for example, incarcerated
criminals. Polls are open from 6 am to 6 pm on the day of
elections, which is not a working day. The method of voting has
frequently been changed. In the 1996 and 1998 elections,
women have voted in the morning and men in the afternoon.
The process was as follows: on election day voters went to their
voting station to register; once registration closed, voting
began. This process (known as colegios cerrados) was mandated
by a 1994 constitutional reform, and was intended to prevent
the possibility of double voting. And, on the basis of a 1997 law,
for the first time in 1998, political parties received public funding.
For other provisions of the 1997 law, see below.
Elections in the Dominican Republic historically have been
highly problematic and crisis-ridden. Opposition parties have
usually questioned the use and abuse of state resources by the
governing party, and the campaign period leading up to election
day has often been marked by widespread distrust, allegations
of fraud, and violence associated with campaign events.
In recent years, as a consequence of fraud and protest, particularly
in the 1990 and 1994 elections, important modifications
in the electoral law have been made.
At the center of the problem with elections has been doubts
about the objectivity, capability, and autonomy of the country's
Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral — JCE), which,
along with its subsidiary municipal boards, is responsible for
overseeing elections. These agencies combine administrative,
regulatory, and judicial functions. The JCE is responsible for
managing the voter registry list, regulating the campaign and
administering the elections; it is also the unappealable arbiter
of all disputes related to elections, with complaints being heard
in the first instance by municipal electoral boards. The autonomy
and credibility of the JCE have been affected by a number
of factors. Its judges are named by the Senate (or by the president
if the Senate is not in session and does not subsequently
act) for terms that can be coterminous with each electoral
period; partisan political criteria often have been uppermost.
In a number of elections, an imperfect alternative to a strong
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