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Dominican Republic Presidential Elections 2020
People in the Dominican Republic are voting to choose a new president, in an election that was postponed from May because of the coronavirus crisis.
The vote could end the Dominican Liberation Party's 16 years in power, (in which many people are hoping).
Polls suggest its candidate Gonzalo Castillo is likely to be beaten by Luis Abinader (center-left leaning, towards US sphere of influence) of the opposition Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM).
Dominicans will also be choosing 190 members of the chamber of deputies and 32 senators.
Incumbent President Danilo Medina is ineligible to stand for re-election, having served two consecutive terms since 2012.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes in Sunday's first round, a run-off will be held.
Mr Abinader and his wife announced on 11 June that they had tested positive for coronavirus and he had to temporarily stop campaigning while he recovered.
The Dominican Republic is one of the worst-affected countries in the Caribbean, with more than 35,000 confirmed cases and more than 775 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Mr Abinader surged ahead in the opinion polls after a split in the governing party.
President Medina, who has been in power since 2012, has given his backing to Mr Castillo, a former minister of public works.
More details
Mr Abinader, whose family is of Lebanese descent, is a US-educated economist.
He is executive president of Grupo Abicor, a firm owned by his family which operates major tourism projects in the Dominican Republic.
He ran for president in 2016 and made it into the second round, but lost to Mr Medina, who beat him by almost 27 percentage points.
Mr Castillo is a wealthy businessman who has founded a number of companies over the years, including aviation firm Helidosa and air ambulance service Aeroambulancia.
But some Dominican Liberation Party supporters may switch allegiance to former president Leonel Fernández.
Mr Fernández, who was president from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2004 to 2012, decided to run for the People's Force party, which he has been leading since he left the Dominican Liberation Party.
He studied law in the Dominican Republic but spent much of his youth in New York. He has worked as a lawyer, university professor and author.
Opinion polls have him in third place behind Mr Abinader and Mr Castillo.
However pollsters acknowledged that, with the elections being held under unprecedented circumstances amid the continuing pandemic, it was hard to predict how voters would react on the day.
All candidates had to severely curtail their campaigning due to the virus, but the president of the central electoral board assured voters that polling stations had received hygiene kits and that the nation was "ready" for the elections.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53268860
Mapa de Votacion - Ultramar ( Nota* por razones desconocidas, el centro de votacion en Buenos Aires no tuvo participacion esta vez).
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Originally Posted by axel.aleman
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