Santo Domingo.- The abstention levels have been rising in the country’s latest presidential elections, ranging between 24 and 30% in the last 5 of that category since 2000, and in those of 2020 it exceeded 40%.
Some 3.7 million citizens of the 7.5 million registered did not vote in last Sunday’s elections, so the abstention reached 44.7%, according to the results of the Central Electoral Board (JCE).
It’s the highest abstention from the last contests at the presidential level, the main factor being the coronavirus pandemic, which caused many people, mainly the vulnerable, not to go out to exercise their right to vote, for fear of contagion.
The highest absenteeism has always occurred at the congressional and municipal levels, when they were held separately from the presidential ones, with a difference of two years, sometimes exceeding 50%.