Natalie in the DR: Elections in the DR

Piedad Wins!!!

Yesterday, Sunday, were the local elections here in the DR. Needless to say, from an American mindset, these elections looked interesting. Each candidate’s party has a color. For example, the red party and the purple party and the white party, etc. (No the red party is not related t o communism.) At our school, there are a few political parties represented. Sharlene’s grandma is running for mayor (the purple party), Ambar’s uncle is running for Deputy (red party), and Jose Leonel’s father is running for mayor as well (blue, yellow, red party). Although there is no animocity towards each other at school, it is definitely interesting to me how the election system works here in the DR.

Mayoral Candidate, Piedad Quezada de Dominguez, (purple) recently paved a street in one of the barrios to obtain the votes of the poorer people. Mayoral Candidate and Deputy, Carlos Jose and Rogelio Genao, (red) recently through a huge block party about 4 blocks away from our house. They brought in a famous Dominican rapper, OMEGA!, and threw money out into the crowds. There are hugs caravans of purple or red that you can see going throughout the streets on different occasions. Many people don their red (or whatever color of the party they support) shirts, grab a homemade red flag, and honk like it’s their job. Motorcycles, SUV’s, Daihatsu trucks, 4-wheelers, whatever mode of transportation you can get on, you go! Ten or fifteen people sticking out of an SUV, 30 people piled in the back of a Daihatsu, 5 people on a motorcycle…I think the goal is to have as many people on as few vehicles.

I’ve attached some videos because I don’t think words (or even the videos really) can give justice to the craziness of the elections here. Thankfully they’ve been peaceful thus far, schools here in Jarabacoa do not have school today “just in case” there were riots or negative repercussions from the elections…

Red Party Caravan