Dominican Republic ‘Teflon’ president surges in poll

Santo Domingo.- Just five weeks to go before the May 15 elections and president Danilo Medina seems to haveestablished ‘Teflon’ presidency made famous by Ronald Reagan of the United States.

The latest poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for newspaperDiario Libre shows Medina widening his lead, 59 percent to his nearest rival, Luis Abinader’s 32 percent, despite numerous scandals of government corruption.

Medina, of the ruling PLD party, has widened his lead by fourpoints while Abinader declines two points since the previous Greenberg-DiarioLibre survey in late February.

The opposition PRM party challenger has failed to cut into Medina’slead in the last six weeks, despite the ongoing scandals, including the arrestin Brazil of Joao Santana, the President’s former campaign adviser inconnection with the Petrobras-Odebrecht investigation.

“However, if Abinader could harvest the seeds ofdiscontent, and if he could propose a "change" as a tough subject, hewould have an opportunity to tighter competition,” the Diario Lirbre reportsays.

Advantage Medina

While electoral history suggests that races get tighter as pollingday approaches, Medina’s advantage shows no sign of waning. “In fact, 80 percentof Medina’s supporters are sure of their vote.”

Minority parties

According to the survey, Guillermo Moreno (Al-Pais) figureswith 3 percent and Minou Tavarez Mirabal (Opcion-Democratica with 1 percent,while all the rest of the candidates obtained less than 1 percent.