Dominican Republic: toward more equality

Juan Diego Nusa Penalver

THERE were no surprises or a second round, given that election forecasts proved correct.

Economist Danilo Medina, the governing Dominican Liberation Party (PLD, center-left liberal) candidate, won the May 20 presidential elections in a second attempt, more than four percentage points ahead of his bitter rival, former President Hipólito Mejía (2000-2004). Medina proposes change and a better distribution of national income, in order to reduce social inequalities and a high poverty rate, which affects more than 30% of Dominican society. According to details from the Electoral Central Board (JCE), with 99.1% of the votes counted, Medina won with 51.24%, while Mejía, from the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), obtained 46.93%.

One of the first activities of the President elect, 60 years of age, was to place a wreath at the grave of Juan Bosch in the Ornamental Cemetery, in the presence of members of the of the PLD Political and Central Committees, as well as thousands of people from the town of La Vega. Medina affirmed that he intended to be faithful to the memory of the leader and founder of the Party. Bosch (1909-2001) was an essayist, novelist, historian, educator and the first President of the Dominican Republic, democratically elected in 1963 for a brief period before being overthrown by military troops in the service of the United States.

Medina, a graduate in chemical engineering, decided as a university student to follow in the footsteps of the highly respected Juan Bosch, left the PRD and founded together with Bosch the PLD, then a Marxist party.

The significance of Medina’s initial statement on following Bosch’ example was not lost on analysts. The President elect emphasized that he wishes to be an ethical and moral leader, as was the exemplary intellectual, and that he will place his government at the service of the most needy to whom the PLD founder dedicated his political career, in an attempt to improve Dominicans’ living standards.

"I will arrive at the National Palace with a heart for the poor, but with a whip for the dishonest," Medina stated in his proclamation speech as the PLD candidate last August, a phrase intended as a framework for his possible term in office.

However, the challenges which lie ahead for the future leader, who will govern from 2012-2016, are immense. In addition to trying to heal the wounds of a harsh electoral campaign (Mejía has still not acknowledged defeat), he must find ways to fulfill the promised "secure, constructive, mature and democratic change," his campaign motif.

While it is a fact that the Dominican Republic has achieved one of the largest growth rates in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years (4.5% in 2011) and has significantly reduced its poverty rate to 34% from the 44% recorded 10 years ago, visible social inequalities remain and are the source of social unrest. This is a difficult situation to positively change with a weak economy tied to IMF credits and dependent on remittances from abroad and tourism.

To have an idea of the precarious nature of the national economy, suffice it to say that 56% of Dominicans work in the informal sector, unemployment stands at 14.6% and 75% of paid workers earn less than 10,000 pesos ($260) a month.

Confronting rising inflation (in excess of 7% last year), creating new jobs, fighting corruption and insecurity in the streets are some of the most urgent requirements of citizens in this country of 10 million inhabitants, and thorny issues that must be priorities in the future government of Danilo Medina, who has another hot potato to juggle with neighboring Haiti, devastated by an earthquake and a cholera epidemic. In this context, he has opted for promoting a free trade agreement with Port-au-Prince. Relations between the two nations have always been complicated.

The new President has also stated that his administration will prioritize education and social assistance, solve longstanding problems with the country’s electricity service, as well as the implementation of a comprehensive taxation policy, environmental protection and a "head-on" confrontation with crime. An entire rosary of problems difficult to approach in a four-year term and with scant options of external financing.