SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Dominicans were expected to expand the ruling party's strong congressional majority in Sunday elections that could strengthen President Leonel Fernandez's grip over the legislature.
Twenty-seven parties from across the political spectrum fielded candidates in the first nationwide vote since Fernandez succeeded in getting a new constitution ratified that allows leaders to serve an unlimited number of terms.
If his governing Dominican Liberation Party dominates returns, as polls have forecast, Fernandez will use the majority in both chambers to push his pro-business agenda and amend local laws to coincide with the new constitution.
It's not yet clear what laws Fernandez would push legislators to amend first, according to leading political analyst Rosario Espinal.
The new constitution, forged last year under an agreement between Fernandez and the main opposition party, lifted the lifetime limit on presidential terms but still bars a president from serving more than eight consecutive years. Fernandez, who is in his second consecutive term and third overall, is not allowed to run in 2016 but could do so four years later.
Laws will also have to be amended to fall in line with the first Dominican charter to prohibit human trafficking, a major issue in a country whose construction and agriculture industries depend on labor imported, often illegally, from neighboring Haiti.
The president's party currently has a majority in the bicameral legislature, controlling 22 out of 32 Senate seats and 96 out of 178 seats in lower house. The main opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party currently has seven senators and 60 seats in the lower house.
During the campaign, the opposition accused the government of wasting public money and failing to stem crime.
On Sunday, Electoral Board chief Julio Cesar Castanos said polling stations across the Caribbean country were largely peaceful, despite a shooting in the town of Cambita that killed a backer of the Dominican Revolutionary Party.
Voters also cast ballots for local races in 155 municipalities.
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