Candidates fight for “change” vote in Dominican Republic election

SANTO DOMINGO, (Reuters) – Voters in the Dominican Republic’s presidential election on Sunday will choose between two candidates vying to be seen as agents of change, even though one represents the ruling party and the other is a former president.

Making the choice even harder, both candidates represent center-left political parties in a race devoid of major ideological differences and lacking a conservative option.

Polls show Danilo Medina, 60, of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), leading by a comfortable margin of 5 to 10 percentage points over Hipolito Mejia, 70, who is hoping to return to power for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) eight years after a failed re-election bid.

“There isn’t a young, fresh, new voice,” said Eric Farnsworth, a Latin America expert at the Council of the Americas in New York. “So what you have is both candidates trying to position themselves as the one who is most competent and trustworthy to run the government.”

While the Dominican Republic is far wealthier than Haiti, its poor neighbor on the island of Hispaniola, many Dominicans still struggle to satisfy basic needs, prompting some to seek a better life by slipping in to nearby Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

The Dominican Republic is a popular resort spot, famous for its white sandy beaches and golf courses, but it also is the leading Caribbean transshipment point for South American drugs destined for the United States and Europe.

First Lady running
for VP

Medina, a chemical engineer and co-founder of the PLD, is a former minister of the presidency of the current administration of President Leonel Fernandez, 58, a New York-raised lawyer and academic who is barred from running again after serving two con

Fernandez’s wife, Margarita Cedeno, is running as Medina’s vice president. Popular with women voters, Cedeno, a 44-year-old mother of two young daughters, used her position as first lady to work for poverty reduction and children and women’s issues.