By Alejandra Garcia on May 21, 2024
Luis Abinader, and his wife Raquel Arbaje Soneh react after the preliminary results of the presidential election, in Santo Domingo, photo: Henry Romero, Reuters
On Sunday, presidential elections were held in the Dominican Republic, giving the victory to the incumbent president, Luis Abinader, who is heading for a second term full of challenges. Social debts and marked inequalities persist in the country, amid a deficient health care system, along with the expansion of the informal economy, while overall poverty stands at 23.0 % and extreme poverty at 3.2 %.
Abinader, 56, of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), is an economist, with several degrees and business experience, including his family’s firms. “For this reason, the economic issue is called to be fundamental in the president’s agenda,” Cuban journalist Mariela Pérez Valenzuela, Prensa Latina’s correspondent in the Dominican Republic, explained.
A report by the Inter-American Development Bank, published last March, indicated that about one percent of the largest local fortunes control about 42 percent of the wealth of the nation, which is home to 11 million people.
The Dominican Republic has experienced significant economic growth in recent years. Official data indicate that tourism contributed US$10 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023. Remittances sent from abroad amounted to almost 11 billion dollars, 3.1 percent more than in the previous year, and foreign direct investment reached a record of 4.3 billion dollars, especially in hotel construction projects.
However, for years, the country has had a fiscal reform pending, a campaign promise made by Abinader that has been postponed. The fight against corruption and insecurity are also among the issues to be faced by the leader in the next four years.
While there have been advances in the fight against corruption in the wake of the great movement to fight it that took place between 2017 and 2019, delays in judicial processes persist, according to the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI).
In addition, the country has failed to generate quality jobs or improve access to basic quality goods and services such as education, health, water and electricity, according to the Argentine daily El Clarin. Currently, job creation does not meet expectations and the unemployment rate stood at 5.0 percent in the last quarter of 2023.
“Half of the economically active population has moved into the informal market, in many cases in precarious situations. Poverty affected almost a quarter of the population in the last four years, and extreme poverty affected three percent,” Prensa Latina reported.
In the opinion of analysts, the social policies implemented in the last four years have only been a mere window dressing in what is needed in the social scenario in which a large part of the population subsists.
Another recurring theme in Abinader’s second term will be migration. This sensitive issue is fundamentally focused on the controversial historical relationship with neighboring Haiti, whose political and social crisis is worsening day by day with the imminent arrival of multinational forces.
“In the last year, close to 200,000 Haitians were deported from this country. Despite the official position, sectors of the Dominican economy such as agriculture and construction depend on Haiti, due to bilateral trade relations and the use of migrant labor at a very low cost. A latent and important contradiction for the new administration,” the Prensa Latina journalist assured.
Analysts assume Abinader’s reelection was a victory. But it remains to be seen how he will be able to address the concerns of Dominicans. Four years do not seem to be enough especially in light of his lack of accomplishments in his first term as president.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English