Roque Espaillat “El Cobrador” emerges as the Most Voted minority candidate

Santo Domingo.- The Democratic Hope party, founded and led by Ramfis Domínguez Trujillo, the grandson of dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961), garnered over 1% of the votes in the presidential and legislative elections held this Sunday in the Dominican Republic.

Ramfis Trujillo’s candidacy was challenged by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) due to his dual Dominican and American nationality. The Constitution stipulates that only Dominican nationality is valid for presidential candidates. This issue also prevented him from participating in the 2020 elections.

Despite these obstacles, the JCE legalized Trujillo’s party, which fielded Roque Espaillat, popularly known as ‘el Cobrador,’ as its presidential candidate. Espaillat secured 1.28% of the votes with 35% of the valid votes, according to the latest bulletin from the electoral body.

In these elections, where President Luis Abinader was re-elected, seven other candidates participated, including three-time president Leonel Fernández and former Chamber of Deputies president Abel Martínez.

The percentage achieved by Ramfis Trujillo’s party exceeded that of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), once one of the most powerful political organizations in the country. The PRD and its candidate, former Dominican chancellor Miguel Vargas Maldonado, received only 0.47% of the votes.

If the current voting trend continues, the Democratic Hope party would rank fourth among political parties, a significant surprise in this election.

Abinader and the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) secured 58.69% of the votes, Fernández and his People’s Force (FP) received 27.39%, and Martínez and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) obtained 10.75%.

Apart from these major parties, only Ramfis Trujillo’s party achieved more than 1%, with his strong nationalist rhetoric resonating with some voters. The JCE recognizes as majority parties those that secure at least 5% of the votes in presidential elections.

Although Ramfis Trujillo’s party remains a minority, it surpasses five other organizations, ranking just behind the three major Dominican parties.

Other candidates included Carlos Peña from the Generations of Servers party with 0.66%, Virginia Antares from the Democratic Option (OD) with 0.53%, María Teresa Cabrera from the Broad Front (FA) with 0.13%, and Fulgencio Severino from the Homeland Party for All with 0.06%.

Trujillo has defended some actions taken by his grandfather during his dictatorship, such as repaying the foreign debt, securing women’s right to vote, and making the Dominican Republic the third country in Latin America to establish television. Additionally, he has advocated for the “mass deportation” of all undocumented Haitians.