Dominican Republic Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Offii-tal name: Dominican Republic

Type: republic

Capital: Santo Domingo

Political subdivisions: 26 provinces and the National District

Legal system: based on French civil codes; 1966 constitution

National holiday. Independence Day, 27 February

Branches: President popularly elected for a four-year term; bicameral legislature (National Congress—27-seat Senate and 120-seat Chamber of Deputies elected for four-year terms); Supreme Court

Government leader: Salvador JORGE Blanco, President (since May 1982)

Suffrage: universal and compulsory, over age 18 or married, except members of the armed forces and police, who cannot vote

Elections: last national election May 1982; next election May 1986

Political parties and leaders- Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Jacobo Majluta and Jose Francisco Pena Gomez; Reformist Social Christian Party (PRSC), Joaquin Balaguer (formed in 1984 by merger of Reformist Party and Revolutionary Social Christian Party); Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Juan Bosch; Democratic Quisqueyan Party PQDt, Elias Wessin y Wessin; Antireelection Movement of Democratic Integration (MIDA), Francisco Augusto Lora, National Civic Union (UCN), Guillermo Delmonte Urraca; Dominican Communist Party (PCD), Narciso Isa Conde, Anti-Imperialist Patriotic Pinion (UP A), Ivan Rodriguez; in 1983 several leftist parties, including the Communists, joined to form the Dominican Leftist Front (FID); however, they stiil retain individual party structures

Voting strength: (1982 election) 74% voter turnout, 46.76% PRO, 39.14% PR, 9.69% PI.D; 4.41% minor parties

Communists: an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 members in several legal and illegal factions; effectiveness limited by ideological differences and organizational inadequacies

Member of: FAO, G-77, GATT, l.ADB, IAEA, IB A, IBRD, ICAO, K Ό IDA, IDB— Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC,1HO,ILO IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IRC, ISO, ITU, OAS, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO

NOTE: The information regarding Dominican Republic on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Dominican Republic 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Dominican Republic 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.