Gallup polls roil Dominican políticos

Santo Domingo.- GallupRD pollster president Rafael Acevedo on Tuesday defended the parameters of the surveyon Dominican Republic’s current electoral preferences, which has been harshly criticizedby the country’s ruling party (PLD).

The survey by the subsidiary of the US based GallupOrganization reveals that president Danilo Medina’s current support for reelectionis at 51.8%, to major opposition PRM party presidential candidate Luis Abinader’s35.7%.

PLD spokesman Francisco Javier Garcia slammed the pollster,which in his view, produced widely different results despite being done withintwo weeks of each other. “We want the Gallup organization to tell Dominicans whichof the two polls they should go by.”

But Acevedo insists that both surveys were treated withprofessionalism. The first survey published 11 days ago showed Medina at 57.6%.

"Both surveys, as is usual in our work were subjectedto rigorous procedures of reliability and validity," he said in a statement,noting that the first poll was contracted by a group of business leaders interestedin gauging the support for candidates to the presidency.

Opposition

Abinader questioned the results of the first survey whichplaced him at 35.7%, but kept mum whenthe second one gave him 37.0%