2024 Dominican Republic general election

2024 Dominican Republic general election

19 May 2024
Presidential election
Turnout	54.37% ( 0.92 pp)
Nominee Luis Abinader Leonel Fernández Abel Martínez [es] Party PRM FP PLD Alliance Dominican Republic Advances PRM PRSC DxC PHD PNVC APD PP Rescue Dominican Republic FP BIS PUN PQDC FNP National Progressive Bloc PLD PV UDC PRSD PCR PLR MODA Running mate Raquel Peña Ingrid Mendóza Zoraíma Cuello Popular vote 2,507,297 1,259,427 453,468 Percentage 57.44% 28.85% 10.39%
President before election Luis Abinader PRM Elected President Luis Abinader PRM
Senate
All 32 seats in the Senate 17 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Seats +/– PRM José Ignacio Paliza 24 +7 FP Leonel Fernández 3 +2 PRSC Quique Antún 1 −5 APD Max Puig 1 +1 PPG Antonio Marte 1 New PLR Karina Aristy 1 +1 PRI Trajano Santana 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. President of the Senate before President of the Senate after Ricardo De los Santos Polanco [es] PRM Ricardo De los Santos Polanco [es] PRM
Chamber of Deputies
All 190 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 96 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Seats +/– PRM José Ignacio Paliza 134 +48 FP Leonel Fernández 27 +24 PLD Danilo Medina 12 −63 PRD Miguel Vargas 1 −3 PRSC Quique Antún 4 −2 DxC Mateo Espaillat 2 0 PRSD Luis Miguel De Camps 3 +2 PCR Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna 1 0 ALPAÍS Guillermo Moreno García 1 −1 PLR Karina Aristy 1 0 PQDC Elías Wessin Chávez 1 0 PSC Flor Soraya Aquino Campos de Checo 1 New PNVC Juan Cohen 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. President of the Chamber of Deputies before President of the Chamber of Deputies after Alfredo Pacheco PRM Alfredo Pacheco PRM
Central American Parliament
20 Dominican Republic seats in the Central American Parliament
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– PRM José Ignacio Paliza 54.14 12 +1 FP Leonel Fernández 21.19 4 +4 PLD Danilo Medina 20.50 4 −4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Presidential election map
Results by province

General elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 19 May 2024 to elect a president, vice-president, 32 senators, 190 deputies and 20 PARLACEN deputies.^[1][2][3][4]

Incumbent President Luis Abinader won re-election to a second term with a majority of the vote in the first round, eliminating the need for a runoff.

Electoral system

The President of the Dominican Republic is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives 50% + 1 vote, or more, of the total votes, a second-round runoff is held between the two candidates with the highest votes in the first round.

The 32 members of the Senate are elected from the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional using first-past-the-post voting.^[5]

The 190 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected in three groups; 178 are elected by proportional representation from 32 multi-member constituencies based on the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional, with the number of seats based on the population of each province. A further seven members are elected by proportional representation by Dominican expatriates in three overseas constituencies, and five seats are allocated at the national level to parties that received at least 1% of the vote nationally, giving preference to those that did not win any of the 178 constituency seats.^[6]

The 20 seats in the Central American Parliament are elected by proportional representation.

Conduct

Around eight million people were eligible to vote in this election. Voting began at 07:00 on 19 May and closed at 17:00.^[7][8] The process was described as smooth, apart from small irregularities reported by opposition parties.^[9]

Candidates

^[10]

Party		Presidential candidate	Vice presidential candidate
	Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM)	Luis Abinader	Raquel Peña
	Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD)	Abel Martínez Durán [es]	Zoraima Cuello
	Partido Fuerza del Pueblo (FP)	Leonel Fernández	Ingrid Mendoza
	Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD)	Miguel Vargas	Joel Díaz Ureña
	Frente Amplio (FA)	María Teresa Cabrera	Jesús Díaz Morán
	Movimiento Patria para Todos y Todas (MPT)	Fulgencio Severino	Francisca Peguero
	Partido Generacion de Servidores (PGS)	Carlos Peña	Nikauly de la Mota
	Opción Democrática (OD)	Virginia Antares Rodríguez	Ico Abreu
	Partido Esperanza Democratica (PED)	Roque Espaillat	José Ernesto Fadul

Campaign

Among notable issues during the campaign was the effects of the political unrest in Haiti and increased migration from the latter country. During a debate, President Abinader pledged to continue the deportation of illegal immigrants and finish construction of a wall along the border with Haiti. Both Leonel Fernandez and Abel Martínez also supported a harsh stance on migration.^[11]

Opinion polls

Pollster	Date(s)	Abinader (PRM)	Martínez [es] (PLD)	Fernandez (FP)
AtlasIntel	6–9 May 2024	65.2%	11.5%	17.3%
Acxiona	5–8 May 2024	67.2%	7.22%	21.5%
Gallup-RCC Media	1–4 May 2024	60%	11.1%	24.6%
Markestrategia	15–17 April 2024	67.9%	7.1%	18.4%
Gallup RCC Media	6–9 March 2024	64%	12%	19%
CID Gallup	27–28 February 2024	59%	13%	27%
RD Elige	20–26 February 2024	52.3%	13%	29%
Acxiona	2–5 February 2024	54%	9%	24%
ACD Media	15–18 January 2024	55.1%	10.4%	26.3%
Centro Económico del Cibao	17–18 December 2023	58.2%	9.9%	22.9%
RD Elige	1–9 December 2023	52.9%	16.9%	28.7%
Greenberg-Diario Libre	15–18 November 2023	49%	17%	29%
Markestrategia	12–14 November 2023	57.6%	10.7%	24.6%
Gallup RCC Media	25–29 October 2023	55.2%	13.5%	27.4%
Consulting Research Group	21–23 September 2023	36.3%	30.9%	20.1%
RD Elige	12–16 September 2023	53.1%	16.6%	27.8%
Markestrategia	26–28 August 2023	54.6%	12.5%	24.8%
Acxiona	1–5 August 2023	53.0%	11.0%	22.0%
Markestrategia	19–21 July 2023	55.8%	13.1%	29.1%
Gallup RCC Media	11–14 June 2023	47.7%	19.0%	28.9%
RD Elige	17–20 May 2023	47.3%	21.5%	27.0%
Sondeos	22–30 April 2023	48%	11.0%	31.0%
Gallup RCC Media	1–5 April 2023	48.5%	18.2%	25.9%
RD Elige	14–18 March 2023	44.8%	27.6%	22.4%
Grupo de Investigaciones Digitales	30 January–3 February 2023	49.9%	21.0%	18.0%
Markestrategia	20–22 January 2023	47.7%	14.8%	27.0%
Acxiona	24–28 November 2022	44.0%	17.0%	23.0%

Results

Preliminary results showed that Abinader had won outright re-election in the first round with around 60% of the vote, while his Modern Revolutionary Party was expected to win a supermajority in the Congress of the Dominican Republic.^[9]

President

Candidate		Running mate	Party	Votes	%
	Luis Abinader	Raquel Peña	Modern Revolutionary Party	2,507,297	57.44
	Leonel Fernández	Ingrid Mendoza	People's Force	1,259,427	28.85
	Abel Martínez [es]	Zoraima Cuello	Dominican Liberation Party	453,468	10.39
	Roque Espaillat	José Ernesto Fadul	Democratic Hope Party	59,396	1.36
	Carlos Peña	Nikauly de la Mota	Generation of Servants Party	31,566	0.72
	Virginia Antares Rodríguez	Ico Abreu	Democratic Choice	25,204	0.58
	Miguel Vargas	Joel Díaz Ureña	Dominican Revolutionary Party	19,790	0.45
	María Teresa Cabrera	Jesús Díaz Morán	Broad Front	6,255	0.14
	Fulgencio Severino	Francisca Peguero	Country Movement for All	2,744	0.06
Total				4,365,147	100.00
Valid votes				4,365,147	98.56
Invalid/blank votes				63,932	1.44
Total votes				4,429,079	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				8,145,548	54.37
Source: JCE

Senate

The Modern Revolutionary Party won a supermajority in the Senate, seeing their seat total increase from 17 to 24.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Modern Revolutionary Party	1,876,246	45.54	24	+7
	People's Force	797,059	19.35	3	+2
	Dominican Liberation Party	726,833	17.64	0	−6
	Dominican Revolutionary Party	105,227	2.55	0	0
	Social Christian Reformist Party	58,691	1.42	1	−5
	Dominicans for Change	49,940	1.21	0	−1
	Social Democratic Institutional Bloc	44,858	1.09	0	−1
	National Unity Party	40,056	0.97	0	0
	Social Justice	39,762	0.97	0	–
	Possible Country	35,993	0.87	0	0
	Country Alliance	27,307	0.66	0	0
	Generation of Servants	25,097	0.61	0	–
	Alliance for Democracy	22,235	0.54	1	+1
	Revolutionary Social Democratic Party	21,518	0.52	0	0
	Civic Renovation Party	20,405	0.50	0	0
	Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party	20,144	0.49	0	0
	Dominican Humanist Party	19,767	0.48	0	0
	Democratic Choice	19,043	0.46	0	–
	Alternative Democratic Movement	18,961	0.46	0	0
	People First Party	17,631	0.43	1	+1
	Liberal Reformist Party	17,018	0.41	1	+1
	Broad Front	13,504	0.33	0	0
	Democratic Hope Party	12,337	0.30	0	–
	Liberal Action Party	10,946	0.27	0	0
	Independent Revolutionary Party	10,674	0.26	1	+1
	Christian Socialist Party	9,948	0.24	0	–
	Christian People's Party	9,404	0.23	0	0
	Christian Democratic Union	8,831	0.21	0	0
	Institutional Democratic Party	8,180	0.20	0	0
	National Progressive Force	7,623	0.19	0	0
	Country Movement for All	7,575	0.18	0	–
	People's Democratic Party	7,037	0.17	0	0
	Green Socialist Party	5,910	0.14	0	–
	National Citizen Will Party	4,268	0.10	0	0
Total		4,120,028	100.00	32	–
Valid votes		4,120,028	96.77
Invalid/blank votes		137,410	3.23
Total votes		4,257,438	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,145,548	52.27
Source: JCE

Chamber of Deputies

The Modern Revolutionary Party won a supermajority in the Chamber of Deputies, the first time a political party achieved this in modern Dominican history.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Modern Revolutionary Party	2,065,198	48.39	134	+48
	People's Force	731,232	17.13	27	+24
	Dominican Liberation Party	641,585	15.03	13	−62
	Dominican Revolutionary Party	92,441	2.17	1	−3
	Social Christian Reformist Party	79,337	1.86	4	−2
	Dominicans for Change	55,093	1.29	2	0
	Social Justice	50,855	1.19	0	–
	National Unity Party	47,590	1.12	0	0
	Possible Country	37,896	0.89	0	0
	Revolutionary Social Democratic Party	35,117	0.82	3	+2
	Civic Renovation Party	33,774	0.79	1	0
	Democratic Choice	31,445	0.74	0	–
	Dominican Humanist Party	30,030	0.70	0	−1
	Country Alliance	29,608	0.69	1	−1
	Alternative Democratic Movement	27,646	0.65	0	0
	Social Democratic Institutional Bloc	26,885	0.63	0	−2
	People First Party	25,648	0.60	0	–
	Generation of Servants	23,121	0.54	0	–
	Liberal Reformist Party	23,113	0.54	1	0
	Alliance for Democracy	22,884	0.54	0	−2
	Democratic Hope Party	19,579	0.46	0	–
	Independent Revolutionary Party	18,578	0.44	0	0
	Liberal Action Party	16,582	0.39	0	0
	Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party	16,533	0.39	1	0
	Broad Front	13,619	0.32	0	−3
	People's Democratic Party	12,458	0.29	0	0
	Christian People's Party	11,974	0.28	0	0
	Christian Democratic Union	10,608	0.25	0	0
	Christian Socialist Party	10,041	0.24	1	+1
	Green Socialist Party	9,069	0.21	0	–
	Institutional Democratic Party	6,298	0.15	0	0
	National Citizen Will Party	4,722	0.11	1	+1
	County Movement for All	4,310	0.10	0	–
	National Progressive Force	2,885	0.07	0	0
Total		4,267,754	100.00	190	–
Valid votes		4,267,754	96.81
Invalid/blank votes		140,736	3.19
Total votes		4,408,490	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,145,548	54.12
Source: JCE

Central American Parliament

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Modern Revolutionary Party	2,223,170	54.14	12
	People's Force	870,241	21.19	4
	Dominican Liberation Party	842,008	20.50	4
	Possible Country	35,993	0.88	0
	Country Alliance	27,307	0.66	0
	Generation of Servants	25,097	0.61	0
	Alliance for Democracy	22,235	0.54	0
	Revolutionary Social Democratic Party	21,518	0.52	0
	Democratic Choice	19,043	0.46	0
	Democratic Hope Party	12,337	0.30	0
	Country Movement for All	7,575	0.18	0
Total		4,106,524	100.00	20
Registered voters/turnout		8,145,548	–
Source: JCE (RESOLUCIÓN NO. 42-2024), JCE

Aftermath

Both Leonel Fernandez and Abel Martínez conceded to Abinader shortly after the release of the result. In his victory speech, Abinader said that the "changes that we’ve made are going to be irreversible”, adding that the "best is yet to come".^[9]

Re-elected President Abinader, after obtaining a supermajority in both houses, announced a constitutional reform.^[12]

References

1. "2024 presidential election set for 19 May; municipal election will be on 18 February". DR1.com. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
2. "R.Dominicana celebrará elecciones presidenciales el 19 de mayo de 2024" (in European Spanish). La Propuesta Digital. 15 December 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
3. "Presidente de la JCE asegura que elecciones de 2024 se organizan y pagan en 2023" (in European Spanish). Mirador pCentral. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
4. "En 2023 arranca en República Dominicana el proceso de cara a las elecciones de 2024" (in European Spanish). Listín Diario. 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
5. Senado (Senate) IPU
6. Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies) IPU
7. "The day has arrived! Everything you need to know about the presidential and congressional elections being held in the Dominican Republic". Dominican Today. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
8. "Dominican Republic voters head to the polls with eyes on Haiti crisis". Al Jazeera. 19 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
9. "Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader heads to reelection as competitors concede early". Associated Press. 20 May 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
10. "Meet the Candidates: Dominican Republic".
11. "Haiti's crisis rises to the forefront of elections in neighboring Dominican Republic". Associated Press. 17 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
12. https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2024/05/25/abinader-reiterates-that-he-will-seek-to-reform-the-constitution-to-protect-it/