Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law, organized as a unitary, democratic, and representative republic.

For the government and administration of the state, the territory of the republic is divided politically into a National District and 31 provinces, which are subdivided into 158 municipalities and 235 districts. The city of Santo Domingo de Guzmán is the National District, capital of the republic, and seat of the national government. The National District, municipalities, and municipal districts constitute the basis of the local political administrative system.

Legislative Power is exercised on behalf of the people by the National Congress, which is made up of the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies; its members are elected by universal suffrage. The Senate of the Republic is composed of 32 senators, elected by the inhabitants of the 31 provinces and the National District that make up the country. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of 190 members.

The government of the National District and that of the municipalities are each headed by the city council, which consists of two complementary bodies: the "Consejo de Regidores" and the Mayor's Office. The Consejo de Regidores is an exclusively regulatory, supervisory, and oversight body composed of councilors. These will have alternates. The mayor's office is the executive body headed by a mayor, whose alternate is called the deputy mayor (Article 201 of the Constitution of the Dominican Republic).

All elected officials, including the president, senators, members of the National Congress, and municipal authorities, serve a four-year term.

Absolute majority system for the election of the President and Vice President of the Republic. Simple majority system applicable to congressional elections, in the case of senators, mayors, and municipal district directors. Proportional representation: in each province, municipality, electoral district, or municipal district, as the case may be, political parties or independent political groups shall present their candidates for senator, deputy, national deputy by accumulation of votes, and representative to international parliaments, deputy representing the Dominican community abroad, mayor, deputy mayor, councilor and alternate councilor, director, deputy director, and district member, through joint or separate ballots for each level of election. A preferential voting system is used to allocate seats to the elected representatives for the Chamber of Deputies, Councils of Councilors, and Boards of Members.

Closed and unlocked lists.

National elections to choose deputies and councilors are held through electoral districts, based on the division into sectors, sections, and localities that have been implemented by the Central Electoral Board, assigning the corresponding number of deputies and councilors in accordance with the number of inhabitants. For the purposes of electing deputies, two deputies are assigned to the National District and each province. The remaining positions will be distributed proportionally, according to population density. For the purposes of electing councilors and mayors, municipalities are divided into constituencies that may not coincide with the constituencies represented by deputies. These are single-member constituencies in the case of mayors and multi-member constituencies in the case of councilors.

Yes, Law No. 33-18 on Political Parties, Political Groups and Movements (2018), and Law No. 20-23 on the Electoral System (2023) establish that candidates for the Chamber of Deputies, councilors, and members must comply with a gender quota of no less than 40% and no more than 60% for men and women, applied at the national level. Law No. 176-07 establishes that in proposals for elective office at the municipal level, political parties and movements are obliged to preserve and encourage the participation of women. Consequently, when the candidate for mayor is a man, the candidate for deputy mayor must be a woman.

Constitution of the Dominican Republic; Law No. 3455 on Municipal Organization, and Organic Law on the Electoral System No. 15-19 of February 18, 2019.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is the body responsible for electoral justice and the highest authority in electoral disputes, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. It is an autonomous body with legal personality and functional, administrative, budgetary, and financial independence, and is therefore not subject to any other State body. It is headquartered in the city of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, capital of the Dominican Republic, and exercises its jurisdiction throughout the national territory. Its organization, operation, and powers are determined by the Constitution of the Republic, according to Articles 214 and 215, as well as by its Organic Law No. 20-23 of February 21, 2023.