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QUICK FACTS: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Size: 48,730 square kilometers Population: 9,365,818 Average annual income: $2,850 USD Language: Spanish Population below poverty line: 42 percent Life expectancy: 73 years Religions: Roman Catholic, 95 percent Ethnic groups: mixed African-European origin, 73 percent; European origin; African origin (Source: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook 2008) |
Dominican Republic
The Carter Center has observed several presidential elections in the Dominican Republic. Building Hope An election is the closest measure of the will of the people. If citizens feel intimidated into voting for a candidate or a candidate employs illegal methods, a state may end up with a leader who is not only unrepresentative of the nation but also undermines the very democratic ideals a state strives to achieve. For this reason, The Carter Center has worked for more than two decades to assist countries, such as the Dominican Republic, to hold freer and fairer elections, ensuring that human rights are protected and that citizens may shape their governments through their votes. More recently, the Center has helped fight disease through a historic binational initiative between the Dominican Republic and Haiti to accelerate the elimination of two devastating parasitic diseases from their shared island.
Fighting Disease
Catalyzing Disease Elimination in the Caribbean In September 2008, The Carter Center, in partnership with the Dominican Republic and Haiti, launched a historic one-year initiative to help the two countries and their other partners to accelerate the elimination of two mosquito-borne infections—malaria and lymphatic filariasis—from Hispaniola, the last reservoir of these devastating diseases in the Caribbean. As long as lymphatic filariasis and malaria exist on any part of these two nations' shared island, they will threaten the rest of the Caribbean with tragic human and economic consequences.
The initiative stems from a 2006 recommendation of the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication (ITFDE)—a group of 12 global experts on infectious disease—that it is "technically feasible, medically desirable, and would be economically beneficial," to eliminate these two parasitic diseases from Hispaniola. (Read the updated ITFDE recommendation from 2008.) Since then, the binational project has broken new ground in collaborations between these two countries for the betterment of public health on the entire island. (Read the 2008 Carter Center Press Release: Carter Center Launches Effort to Spur Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.)
Malaria, a potentially fatal parasitic infection that causes fevers and flu-like symptoms, is concentrated in 14 of 155 municipios (counties), which reported 2,711 cases and 14 deaths from malaria in 2007. In the Dominican Republic, diagnosis and treatment of malaria are provided free of charge by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance. View flier "How To Use a Mosquito Net" (Spanish/PDF) >
Lymphatic filariasis is a debilitating disease that causes severe swelling in the limbs and genitals, which often devastates victims socially, emotionally, economically, and physically. The national program of the Dominican Republic has reached full treatment coverage for lymphatic filariasis and expects to eliminate disease transmission in 2010.
Achieving elimination would improve not only health, but economic opportunity, including agriculture and tourism. For example, the Dominican Republic lost approximately US $200 million in tourism revenue due to an outbreak of malaria in 2004.
Through these efforts, the technical objectives of the binational project have been met: the countries have developed a standard protocol and procedures, including free diagnosis and treatment of malaria; primaquine has been added as a tool for treatment of malaria; and surveillance and use of microscopy to confirm diagnosis of malaria has been intensified.
With support from The Carter Center, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are preparing binational plans to complete elimination of both the diseases from the island. The plan will be completed in late fall 2009.
UPDATED OCTOBER 2009
Waging Peace
Monitoring Elections The Carter Center, in conjunction with the National Democratic Institute, has monitored numerous elections in the Dominican Republic. The Americas Program's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas observed the election of President Joaquin Balaguer in 1990, a presidential election runoff in 1996, and a free and much-improved election in May 2000. A joint NDI/Carter Center delegation praised the May 2000 elections after Dominicans went to the polls in numbers rarely matched by other nations in the Western Hemisphere. The observers said the administration of the elections was enhanced by a new, modernized registry and by verification of the registry prior to the election. The delegation noted that partisan selection of the supreme election authorities by the Senate led to citizen allegations of partisanship throughout the process. In addition, on election day, the delegation observed that some voters were unable to vote, abandoned their effort to vote, or could not travel to newly assigned polling sites and that others left without voting due to a long voting process in cramped sites. The 1996 presidential election was seen as an important step in the consolidation of democracy after the Pact for Democracy, signed in 1994 by President Balaguer and opposition parties, called for a new voting procedure, a new presidential election in two years, and a runoff election should no candidate win a majority. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former Colombia President Belasario Betancur led a pre-election mission to the country in April 1996 and returned for a runoff June 30 in which Leonel Fernandez won. Although The Carter Center did not observe the 1994 elections, an NDI delegation noted that irregularities in the electoral process could have affected the outcome. Following the election, the pact was signed. The 1990 observer mission heard many questioning the election and the vote count, although the delegation did not receive adequate evidence of irregularities that would have affected the outcome, which was a narrow victory for President Joaquin Balaguer. Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, expenditures on expensive weapons systems divert scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. They also compel neighbors to spend more on defense and, by doing so, generate international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among the signatories was Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández. Election Reports Final Report: Observing the 1996 Dominican Republic Elections (PDF), released May 1, 1997 At the invitation of the Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic and the three principal parties, the Carter Center's Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government, along with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), monitored the 1996 presidential elections. Final Report: Observing the 1990 Dominican Republic Elections (PDF), released Aug. 16, 1990 At the invitation of the president of the Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic, the Carter Center's Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government, along with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), monitored the 1990 presidential elections. |
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