Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader is set to win re-election on Sunday, with voters applauding his crackdown on immigrants from neighboring Haiti, an anti-corruption campaign and his stewardship of one of Latin America’s best-performing economies. .
Abinader, a former tourism executive, received 59% of the vote, while his closest rival, three-time former president Leonel Fernández, received 27%; provincial governor Abel Abel Martínez received 11% of the vote, while his share of the vote was 21.5%. According to the Dominican Republic’s national electoral authorities, the votes have been counted.
Both Mr. Fernandez and Mr. Martinez called Mr. Abinadel on Sunday evening to acknowledge and congratulate him, although full official results were not yet available and are expected to be released in the coming days. In his victory speech, Abinader thanked his rivals and those who voted for him.
“I accept the trust placed in me,” Mr. Abinader said. “I will not let you down.”
This election shows how political leaders can turn immigration concerns to their advantage.
Dominican Republic to deport tens of thousands of Haitians this year – despite ask UN blocks – as they flee gang-fuelled Lawless.Mr. Abinader went further and established a border wall Relations between two countries sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
“He has shown who has the most say on this issue,” said Robert Luna, a Santo Domingo voter who works in marketing, referring to Abinadel’s hard-line immigration policies. “He’s fighting for the aspirations of the founding fathers.”
Mr Abinadel’s likely victory in the first round also shows that what separates the Dominican Republic, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, from the rest of the region is that many of the region’s leaders share the same agenda as Mr Abinadel. came to power during the period.quilt dismal Agree Ratings.
“This is definitely not a ‘change’ election, like so many other recent elections in Latin America,” said Michael Shift, a senior fellow at the Washington-based research group Inter-American Dialogue.
Much of Mr. Abinader’s support also stems from his anti-corruption initiatives.he Win first term in 2020 has vowed to root out long-standing corruption in the political culture of the Dominican Republic, a country of 11.2 million people.
He appointed former Supreme Court justice Miriam Germán as attorney general. She oversaw investigations that ensnared senior officials from the previous administration, including a former attorney general and a former treasury secretary.
The investigation has focused largely on opponents of Abinader, fueling criticism that his own government has survived. But other initiatives, such as the passage of the Asset Forfeiture Act of 2022, raise hope for lasting change. Forfeiture laws are viewed as an important and groundbreaking tool for disrupting and dismantling criminal enterprises and stripping them of their ill-gotten property.
Dominican political analyst Rosario Espinal said Mr. Abinader could have won re-election simply by focusing on the fight against corruption, as he did in 2020, “but would not have achieved the success he wanted.” advantage”.
Ms. Espinal said Mr. Abinadel instead supported nativist immigration policies traditionally pushed by the Dominican far right. “He needed to find a new topic that resonated,” she said. “He discovered that in his migration.”
Exploiting anti-Haitian sentiment is nothing new in the Dominican Republic.
Rafael Trujillo, the xenophobic dictator who ruled the country from 1930 to 1961, institutionalized a campaign to portray Haitians as racial inferiors and in 1937 ordered massacre Thousands of Haitians and Dominicans are of Haitian ancestry.
Nearly every other country in the Americas offers birthright citizenship. But a 2010 constitutional amendment and a 2013 court ruling excluded Dominican-born children of undocumented immigrants from citizenship.
In practice, this means that there are approximately 130,000 descendants of Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic No citizenship despite being born thereaccording to rights groups.
as haiti Into chaos The following Assassinations in 2021 Under Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, Mr. Abinadel built on anti-immigration measures already enshrined in Dominican law.
He suspended visas for Haitians in 2023 and then closed the border with Haiti for nearly a month over a dispute over Haiti’s use of water from a river shared by the two countries to build a canal.
“He has to take a tough stance,” Sandra Ventura, a 55-year-old businesswoman from Tamayo in the south of the country, said of Mr. Abinader’s immigration policies.
Dominican immigration officials go further, some charged robbery and launched a campaign to detain and deport Haitian women pregnant Or someone who just had a baby.
Pablo Mera, academic director of the Dominican University’s Pedro Francisco Bono Institute, called Abinadel’s policies toward Haiti a “public and international disgrace,” particularly the treatment of pregnant Haitians.
“What happened was getting votes,” Mr. Mehra added. “The candidates are competing over who is the most anti-Haitian.”
Before election, overwhelming majority of Dominican voters said unrest in Haiti was Influence How they will vote. Mr. Abinadel clearly benefits from such concerns, with nearly 90 percent of voters expressing support for him building a border wall.
Many Dominican expatriates are also allowed to vote in the election, with more than 600,000 eligible voters living in the United States and more than 100,000 in Spain.
Abinadel has defended his immigration policies, saying they are no different from measures taken by countries such as Jamaica, the Bahamas, the United States and Canada to limit the entry of Haitians fleeing the crisis.
“I must take all necessary measures to protect the safety of our people,” Mr Abinader said tell the bbc in a recent interview. “We’re just enforcing our laws.”
Mr. Abinader’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still, some voters don’t trust the current president. Tirso Lorenzo Piña, a janitor and evangelical Christian in Santo Domingo, said he was not satisfied with Mr. Abinader’s approach. support The United Nations admits Palestine as a member state.
“Everyone has their own ideology, their own ideas, their own way of thinking,” Mr. Piña said. “But I don’t like him.”
Still, Abinader has benefited from a divided Dominican opposition and a broad consensus in favor of investor-friendly policies to spur economic growth. His handling of the pandemic has also been helpful, with the relatively quick distribution of vaccines allowing Dominican tourism to revive while some other countries required visitors to quarantine.
Tourism is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for approximately 16% of GDP.world bank expect The Dominican Republic’s economy is expected to grow by 5.1% this year.
Although the country’s economy has expanded at three times the Latin American average over the past two decades, persistent inequality has exposed Mr. Abinader to criticism. He responded by expanding a popular cash transfer program targeting the country’s poorest residents.
