DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina celebrates near certain victory in Dominican Republic presidential elections.

Record ID: 862868

  • Title: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina celebrates near certain victory in Dominican Republic presidential elections.
  • Date: 22nd May 2012
  • Summary: SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MAY 21, 2012) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF CITY
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Dominican Republic
  • City:
  • Country: Dominican Republic
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB8AWL321QXJMWUL08GPSPRJHH
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  • Story Text: Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina celebrated on Monday (May 21) as early results showed him beating out opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia by around four percent, enough to secure an outright first-round victory.
    With almost all the votes counted, Medina and the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) held a 4 percentage point lead (51 percent - 47 percent) over Mejia, the candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD).
    The 60-year-old Medina had lost in a landslide to Mejia in 2000. Medina celebrated with aides and family on Monday, saying he would help the poor in the Dominican Republic, where over a third of the population lives in poverty.
    "The current system in the Dominican Republic is unjust because it favours the privileged at the cost of those who are not privileged. The little ones are never going to grow if everything goes into the hands of the majority parties," he said.
    He also said he would work to improve the island nation's education system.
    "I will work to create the conditions so there is not a single child in Dominican Republic who doesn't have the constitutional right to a quality education with no larger limitations than their own personal attitude," he added.
    Both parties accused each other of vote buying. Election observers confirmed some of those reports, but said the cases were isolated and had no impact on the outcome.
    Shortly after polls closed, the head of an observer mission from the Organization of American States, former Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, told a news conference that the election had been a "success," calling it a "fiesta for democracy."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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