No one in the Dominican Republic was surprised when businessman Luis Abinader of the Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM) managed to get himself reelected in the first round of the presidential elections on May 19. He obtained 57.4 percent of the votes, well ahead of his competitors Leonel Fernández of Fuerza del Pueblo (FP) with 28.9 percent and Abel Fernández of the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) with 10.4 percent. The polls and four years of a government with barely any coherent political opposition predicted this result. In addition, the policies of the three leading candidates were almost indistinguishable, which partly explains the low voter turnout.

In other parts of the region, the rise of the far right has occurred in a context of polarization, as these forces clash with rebellious social movements or electoral center-left parties. In the Dominican Republic, on the other hand, the main political parties and mainstream media express a consensus around unhinged conspiracies about women’s and LGBTQ rights and the LGBTQ community, as well as about violent measures against the Haitian immigrant community. This gives local extremism an air of conventionality and respectability. While Javier Milei and Jair Bolsonaro’s praise of military dictatorships and Nayib Bukele’s claim to be a “cool dictator” have garnered criticism, Abinader’s comparison of himself during the campaign to Dominican dictator Joaquín Balaguer went largely unnoticed.

The discrediting of the FP and PLD parties, associated with the corrupt and privatizing governments that preceded Abinader, was a decisive factor in Adbinader’s first presidential win in 2020, and it continues to hold weight today. At 45.6 percent, the abstention rate in these elections is the highest of any presidential election after Balaguer’s twelve-year dictatorship (1966–1978). The NGO Participación Ciudadana reports that the traditional practices of clientelism and electoral manipulation were widespread on voting day: illegal proselytizing was found at one out of every three voting centers, and vote buying at one out of every six.