The vote count is in: 29% didn’t cast ballots

Santo Domingo. – A bit more than 29% of the 6.5 million eligible voters didn’t do so in Sunday’s presidential elections, and 4.6 million did, or 70.2%.

The figures show a nearly exact abstention rate as in the 2008 and 2004 elections, but higher than in 2004, with 27%.

With all the votes counted the Central Electoral Board said ruling PLD party candidate Danilo Medina won 2,322,818 votes, or 51.21%, compared with 2,129,880 (46.96%), for his PRD party rival Hipólito Mejía, while the remaining tallies went to the minority parties