Dominican Republic parliamentary election, 2010

A parliamentary election was held in the Dominican Republic on 16 May 2010 to elect members to the 32 seats in the Senate and 183 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Polls forecasted a victory for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) of President Leonel Fernández. Before the election, 96 of the 178 Chamber of Deputies seats and 22 of the 32 Senate seats were controlled by the PLD.

The election coincided with 155 municipal elections and elections for 20 seats in the Central American Parliament. The Central American Parliament representatives were being elected for the first time, having previously been appointed to their posts. More than 6 million people were eligible to vote in the election.

The election was conducted amidst sporadic violence with an opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) supporter being killed and three wounded in a clash between government and opposition supporters in San Cristóbal. The dead man was identified as the bodyguard of a PRD mayoral candidate, who was said to have been shot four times with a submachine gun and died in hospital. One of the injured men was the driver for the present mayor. In addition a PLD leader died on 16 May after being surprised whilst purchasing identity documents. A third person had lost their life on 15 May in clashes between PLD and PRD supporters in Samaná.

Election commission officials and representatives from the PRD and PLD made appeals for calm during the election. President Leonel Fernández said that the violence would not affect the poll results.

An election monitoring mission from the Organization of American States said that it had received complaints of fake or purchased identity documents being used to vote. Nonetheless, it ratified the election as mostly free and fair.

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