General elections will be held in Dominican Republic on 15 May 2016 to elect a president, vice-president and the National Congress, as well as 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament, municipal councils, mayors and vice mayors. On 15 May 2015 Roberto Rosario, president of the Central Electoral Board, said that there would be about 4,300 seats up for election in the "most complex elections in history". The previous parliamentary elections were held in 2010, and fresh elections would have usually been due in 2014 as Congress has a four-year term. However, in an effort to revert to the pre-1996 system and synchronize the dates of presidential and parliamentary and local elections in a single electoral year, the congressional term starting in 2010 was exceptionally extended to six years in order for the next congressional and municipal elections to be held alongside the next presidential elections due in 2016.
On 19 April 2015 the political committee of the ruling Dominican Liberation’s Party decided, without consensus, to amend the constitution to allow a president to be re-elected once, allowing incumbent President Danilo Medina to be presented for re-election, based on his high poll ratings. This led to tensions between party members and leaders, especially amongst supporters of Leonel Fernandez who was a pre-candidate for the elections. There was also an impasse in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, where senators and representatives close to Fernandez stated that they would not vote in favour of the Act to Call the Revising National Assembly to amend the constitution. After several weeks of internal disputes, the political committee, including Fernandez and Medina, agreed on 28 May to vote for the amendment. The amendment passed the Chamber on June 2.
Electoral system - The President of the Dominican Republic is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives more than 51% of the vote, a second-round runoff will be held in June 2016. Presidents are limited to serving two consecutive terms of four years. Mayors are also elected using the two-round system. In the Congress, the 183 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected from 31 constituencies based on the 30 provinces and the Distrito Nacional; the number of seats is based on the population of each province. The elections are held using closed list proportional representation, with seats allocated using the d'Hondt method. The 32 members of the Senate are elected from the 31 provinces and the Distrito Nacional using first-past-the-post voting. Voting is compulsory.
