DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: WOMEN FIRST, THEN MEN, VOTE IN COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Record ID: 328440

  • Title: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: WOMEN FIRST, THEN MEN, VOTE IN COUNTRY'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
  • Date: 17th May 2000
  • Summary: SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MAY 16, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: GENERAL VIEW OF CITY AT SUNRISE 0.04 2. GV: SECURITY 0.10 3. GV/CU: POSTERS OF CANDIDATES (3 SHOTS) 0.27 4. GV/MV/CU: PEOPLE OUTSIDE VOTING CENTER/ WOMEN ENTERING TO VOTE (6 SHOTS) 1.02 5. GV/MV/PAN: DOMINICAN REVOLUTIONARY PARTY (PRD) VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MILAGROS ORTIS BOSCH ARRIVING AT VOTING CENTER/ MEDIA/ BOSCH VOTING/ MEDIA/ BOSCH PUTTING BALLOT INSIDE BOX (6 SHOTS) 1.43 6. GV: GENERAL VIEW OF STREET 1.51 7. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF MEN WAITING TO VOTE (3 SHOTS) 2.08 8. CU: MAN LOOKING AT BALLOT (2 SHOTS) 2.16 9. MCU: PEOPLE ARGUING AT VOTING CENTER 2.35 10. CU: SOUNDBITE (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED VOTER: "A person voted twice for someone then tried to rub it out, but unfortunately that cannot be accepted. That is two votes in one." 2.45 11. CU/GV: BALLOTS/ PEOPLE VOTING/ EXTERIOR OF VOTING CENTER (3 SHOTS) 3.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
  • Country: Dominican Republic
  • Reuters ID: LVADELUVKG0PMRJ8KH0S6SUZLB4F
  • Story Text: Women first, then men, have voted in a presidential
    election in the Dominican Republic that will set a course for
    how the Caribbean nation maintains a fast-growing economy
    while trying to reduce poverty.

    Under a system introduced in the Dominican Republic in
    1996 that aimed to make elections more orderly, women voted in
    the morning and men followed in the afternoon on Tuesday (May
    16) during presidential elections.

    Voting, which was set to end at 6 p.m.(2200 GMT), was
    reported mostly peaceful, with a large turnout among the 4.2
    million eligible voters.But there were some minor
    disagreements between voters at polling stations in the
    capital.

    Hipolito Mejia of the social democrat Dominican
    Revolutionary Party (PRD), who campaigned on a platform for
    more social justice amid the boom, led the two other main
    candidates in opinion polls but was seen as unlikely to secure
    the majority vote needed for an outright win.

    The election was headed for a second round run-off vote on
    June 30 that will either give 93-year-old former president
    Joaquin Balaguer a chance for his eighth presidential term or
    put him in the role of kingmaker.

    Campaigns by all three main candidates focused on the
    economy -- growing at an average of more than seven per cent a
    year in the last three years under the liberalising policies
    of outgoing President Leonel Fernandez.His modernising drive
    included privatisation of part of the sugar and energy
    sectors.

    Mejia pledged to reduce inequalities and give government a
    more "human face" in the Dominican Republic, which shares the
    island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

    Danilo Medina of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party
    (PLD) has promised continuity of Fernandez's policies while
    recognising that the benefits of fast growth have yet to
    trickle down to many of the country's 8 million people.

    And the veteran Balaguer, overcoming old age, blindness
    and various other ailments to run again, has promised to make
    life easier for the small farmer, evoking a country idyll
    where a farmer can live happily on the beans he grows in his
    fields.

    Over the past decade, the country has steadily moved away
    from its old dependence on sugar and other commodities to
    focus on tourism, other services and free trade zones.Per
    capita annual income is around $1,770 a year, but some 20
    percent of the population live below the poverty line,
    according to the World Bank.

    Mejia, saying the poor have been deprived of a slice of
    the new cake, has been the clear favourite for months with
    opinion polls giving him around 45 percent of the vote.But
    that is short of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win
    outright on Tuesday.

    Polls have shown a neck-and-neck race for the second place
    between Medina and Balaguer, whose political career goes back
    more than 50 years to the days of dictator Rafael Trujillo.

    Preparations for Tuesday's vote were marred by charges by
    the country's Central Electoral Board over the past few days
    that immigration officials had begun confiscating voter cards
    from Dominicans of Haitian origin.Prey to anti-immigrant
    feelings and often darker skinned than other Dominicans who
    are a mix of African and European ancestry, these Dominicans
    traditionally vote for the PRD.

    Whoever wins second place, Mejia, 59, could see his hopes
    dashed by an alliance between the PLD and Balaguer's
    conservative Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC).


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