Political situation in the Dominican Republic

The Haiti crisis takes center stage as the neighboring country goes to the polls

The crisis in neighboring Haiti is high on the agenda when the Dominican Republic elects both president and parliament on Sunday, AP and AFP write. Everything points to the incumbent president Luis Abinader getting renewed confidence. According to opinion polls, he could get 60 percent, which would mean that he would avoid a second round of elections.

Abinader has pushed a very hard line on immigration from Haiti. Among other things, he has had a wall built along the border and also had a quarter of a million Haitians deported since 2023.

Even the main challenger, the former president Leonel Fernandez, stands behind the hard border policy. In a televised debate, he dismissed international criticism of the country and said the Dominican Republic was within its right to refuse to accept refugees from Haiti.

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Voter: "It takes time to make a country work properly"

Incumbent President Luis Abinader looks to be heading for a comfortable victory in Sunday's presidential election in the Dominican Republic, writes AFP. Abinader was first elected in the middle of the covid pandemic, among other things, on promises to rebuild trust in the government and tackle corruption, and leads widely in opinion polls.

- Stabilizing a country is not easy, and making it work correctly is not so easy either. It takes time. That's why voters want to give Abinader a chance, says 30-year-old voter Henry Perez to AFP.

A compilation of various opinion polls carried out by the organization AS/COA shows that confidence in Abinader's leadership has gradually increased during the term of office.

46 percent of the respondents believe that the country is on the right track, while 42 percent do not think so. Roughly 47 percent believe that corruption has decreased during Abinader's time in power.