The Dominican Republic and the Fall of Balaguer 1994–1996: Presidential Breakdown or Democratic Transition?

Abstract

On May 16, 1994, Balaguer of the Social Christian Reformist Party (Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) won the presidential election through massive electoral fraud, securing a victory over his main opponent, Pena Gomez, who led the Dominican Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD), by a margin of 0.8 of a percentage point. The fraud was discovered between Election Day and the inauguration of the Balaguer administration on August 16. As a result, the country was thrown into its biggest postelectoral crisis since the transitional elections of 1978. As the country was filled with international electoral observers, the Dominican electoral crisis attracted international attention. The Central Electoral Board (Junta Central Electoral, JCE) did not publish the final results until August 2, when it declared Balaguer and Jacinto Peynado the winners and de facto president and vice president for the next four years.

The author thanks Michael E. Álvarez, Mariana Llanos, Kathryn Hochstetler, Andrew Schrank, and Einar Berntzen for their comments. The chapter also benefited from a conversation with Wilfredo Lozano, and e-mail exchanges with Bernardo Vega and John W. Graham. Funding for the research was provided by the Fulbright-Hayes Foundation, and the Leiv Eriksson mobility fund at the Norwegian Research Council.