President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic was heading to a win in his re-election bid on Sunday as voters embraced his crackdown on migrants from neighboring Haiti, an anti-corruption drive and his stewardship of considered one of Latin America’s best-performing economies.
Mr. Abinader, a former government within the tourism trade, took 59 % of the vote towards 27 % for his closest rival, Leonel Fernández, a three-time former president, and 11 % for Abel Martínez, a provincial mayor, with 21.5 % of votes counted, in line with the Dominican Republic’s nationwide electoral authority.
Each Mr. Fernández and Mr. Martínez referred to as Mr. Abinader on Sunday night to concede and congratulate him, regardless of the shortage of full official outcomes, which had been anticipated to be out there in coming days. In a victory speech, Mr. Abinader thanked his rivals and people who voted for him.
“I settle for the belief positioned in me,” Mr. Abinader mentioned. “I cannot allow you to down.”
The election showcased how a political chief might flip migration fears to his benefit.
The Dominican Republic is deporting tens of hundreds of Haitians this 12 months — regardless of pleas from the United Nations to cease — as they flee gang-fueled lawlessness. Mr. Abinader goes even additional, constructing a border wall between the 2 international locations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
“He has proven who wears the pants on this concern,” mentioned Robert Luna, a voter in Santo Domingo who works in advertising, about Mr. Abinader’s hard-line migration insurance policies. “He’s preventing for what the fathers of the nation needed.”
Mr. Abinader’s doubtless first-round victory additionally confirmed how the Dominican Republic, with considered one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, stands other than different international locations within the area, the place many leaders who rose to energy in the identical interval as Mr. Abinader are dogged by dismal approval scores.
“That is undoubtedly not a ‘change’ election as many others have not too long ago been in Latin America,” mentioned Michael Shifter, a senior fellow on the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based analysis group.
A lot of Mr. Abinader’s assist additionally stems from his anti-graft initiatives. He gained his first time period in 2020 by vowing to scrub up the corruption that has lengthy been embedded within the political tradition of the Dominican Republic, a rustic of 11.2 million folks.
He appointed Miriam Germán, a former Supreme Courtroom choose, as legal professional normal. She has overseen investigations that ensnared high-ranking officers within the earlier administration, together with a former legal professional normal and a former finance minister.
The investigations have largely centered on folks against Mr. Abinader, prompting criticism that his personal authorities has been spared. However different strikes, just like the passage in 2022 of an asset forfeiture regulation, provide hope of lasting change. The forfeiture regulation is considered as an essential and pioneering instrument for disrupting and dismantling legal enterprises, depriving them of property acquired illegally.
Rosario Espinal, a Dominican political analyst, mentioned Mr. Abinader might have gained re-election just by specializing in the battle towards corruption, as he did in 2020, “however not with the margins that he desires.”
As an alternative, Ms. Espinal mentioned, Mr. Abinader embraced the nativist immigration insurance policies historically pushed by the Dominican far proper. “He wanted to discover a new matter that will resonate,” she mentioned. “He discovered that in migration.”
Exploiting anti-Haitian sentiment is nothing new within the Dominican Republic.
Rafael Trujillo, the xenophobic dictator who dominated the nation from 1930 to 1961, institutionalized a marketing campaign portraying Haitians as racially inferior and, in 1937, ordered the bloodbath of hundreds of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent.
Practically each different nation within the Americas gives birthright citizenship. However a 2010 constitutional modification and a 2013 courtroom ruling excluded Dominican-born youngsters of undocumented migrants from citizenship.
In sensible phrases, that signifies that roughly 130,000 descendants of Haitian migrants live within the Dominican Republic with out citizenship regardless of being born there, in line with rights teams.
As Haiti descended into chaos following the 2021 assassination of the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, Mr. Abinader constructed on the anti-immigrant measures already enshrined in Dominican regulation.
He suspended visas for Haitians in 2023 after which closed the border with Haiti for almost a month, in a dispute over the development of a canal in Haiti utilizing water from a river shared between the 2 international locations.
“He has to take a troublesome stance,” mentioned Sandra Ventura, 55, a businesswoman from Tamayo within the nation’s south, about Mr. Abinader’s migration insurance policies.
Dominican immigration officers have gone significantly additional, with some accused of looting the houses of Haitians and embarking on a marketing campaign to detain and deport Haitian ladies who had been pregnant or who had simply given beginning.
Pablo Mella, educational director of the Pedro Francisco Bonó Institute, a Dominican college, referred to as Mr. Abinader’s insurance policies towards Haiti a “public and worldwide shame,” notably the therapy of pregnant Haitian ladies.
“What occurs is that’s what will get votes,” Mr. Mella added. “Candidates are vying to see who’s probably the most anti-Haitian of all.”
Forward of the election, a big majority of Dominican voters mentioned that the upheaval in Haiti was influencing how they’d vote. And Mr. Abinader clearly benefited from such considerations, with almost 90 % of voters expressing assist for his building of a border wall.
Many within the massive Dominican diaspora had been additionally allowed to forged ballots within the election, with greater than 600,000 eligible voters residing in america and greater than 100,000 in Spain.
Mr. Abinader has defended his immigration insurance policies, saying they’re no totally different from what international locations like Jamaica, Bahamas, america and Canada have carried out to restrict the arrival of Haitians fleeing the disaster.
“I’ve to do no matter is critical to safe our folks,” Mr. Abinader instructed the BBC in a latest interview. “We’re simply making use of our regulation.”
Mr. Abinader’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Nonetheless, some voters weren’t bought on the incumbent. Tirso Lorenzo Piña, a doorman and an evangelical Christian in Santo Domingo, mentioned he was sad with Mr. Abinader’s assist within the United Nations for admitting Palestine as a member.
“Everybody has their very own ideology, ideas, methods of considering,” Mr. Piña mentioned. “However I don’t like him.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Abinader benefited from a divided opposition and a broad consensus within the Dominican Republic in favor of investor-friendly insurance policies which have spurred financial progress. His dealing with of the Covid pandemic additionally helped, with the comparatively fast distribution of vaccines permitting the Dominican tourism trade to bounce again whereas another international locations had been requiring guests to enter quarantine.
Tourism is a pillar of the financial system, accounting for about 16 % of gross home product. The World Financial institution expects the Dominican Republic’s financial system to develop by 5.1 % this 12 months.
Whereas the nation’s financial system has expanded over the past 20 years at a price thrice the common in Latin America, enduring inequality has opened Mr. Abinader to criticism. He has responded by increasing common cash-transfer packages for the nation’s poorest residents.
