Dominicans pack polling places

AP

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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) – Dominicans packed polling places on Tuesday, lining up to vote in elections that could give the president’s party control of the legislature.

Twenty–two parties from across the political spectrum are fielding candidates in the first nationwide vote since President Leonel Fernandez replaced Hipolito Mejia, whose administration was dogged by corruption scandals, skyrocketing inflation and the devaluation of the Dominican peso.

Fernandez, who took power two years ago amid financial and political turmoil, is banking on the Caribbean nation’s economic rebound to help his party gain more seats in the elections.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) and will close at 6 p.m. (2200 GMT). More than 4.5 million Dominicans were registered to vote.

Fernandez’s Dominican Liberation Party holds just one Senate seat and about a quarter of those in the House of Representatives. But party leaders predict the country’s economic recovery will persuade voters to grant them more clout in the legislature.

"The great challenge will be how to combine stability, growth and job creation, and in this we are (doing so)," Fernandez told supporters recently, calling the election "the start of a new historic step for the Dominican Republic of greater progress and of greater welfare."

Other parties, however, have warned it would be dangerous to put too much power in the hands of a single political faction.

"The population wants and needs a healthy democracy, where powers are separated between the government and opposition," said Alfredo Pacheco, a Santo Domingo mayoral candidate from Mejia’s Dominican Revolutionary Party.

Mejia’s center–left party holds 72 of the 150 seats in the House and 29 of the 32 Senate seats, and has used that majority to hold up Fernandez–backed projects like the construction of a Santo Domingo metro system and parts of his economic policy.

With 28 representatives added this year, 210 legislative seats are up for grabs in addition to 151 mayoral spots. Elections are held every four years, and the parties have encouraged Dominican expatriates to return to vote.

Only three parties – the Social Christian Reformist Party, and those of the president and Mejia – have seats in the legislature.

The economy was the key issue in carnival–like campaigning across the country of nearly 9 million that was hit hard during Mejia’s administration.

Electricity shortages were rampant and inflation reached 42 percent, and the 2003 collapse of the country’s second–largest bank triggered a US$2.2 billion bailout followed by a 65 percent devaluation of the Dominican peso.

The major parties differed on how to respond to the crisis: Mejia borrowed and renationalized utilities, while Fernandez aimed to stabilize the peso, reduce inflation and work with the International Monetary Fund to rebuild the economy.

Inflation has since fallen and the country’s gross domestic product grew 7 percent in 2005, according to the Central Bank.

Voter Jacinto Teburcio, 38, said Tuesday that he intended to vote for candidates with the former president’s party, noting the troubles under the Mejia administration were the "problems of one candidate and his Cabinet."

The parties of Fernandez and Mejia differ little in ideology. Both support liberalized trade and the U.S.–sponsored Central American Free Trade Agreement, which the country is expected to join within weeks.

Some election–related violence was reported over the weekend, including the stabbing death of an organizer from Fernandez’s party.