Title X. On the Electoral System
Chapter I. On the Electoral Assemblies
Article 208. Exercise of suffrage
The exercise of suffrage to elect the authorities of government and to participate in referendums is a right and a duty of the male and female citizens. The vote is personal, free, direct, and secret. No one may be obligated or coerced under any pretext in the exercise of his right to suffrage or to reveal his vote.
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Members of the Armed Forces and of the National Police, nor those who have lost the rights of citizenship or those who find themselves suspended in those rights do not have the right of suffrage.
Article 209. Electoral assemblies
Electoral assemblies shall function in electoral colleges that shall be organized in accordance with the law. The electoral colleges shall open every four years to elect the President and Vice President of the Republic, the legislative representatives, the municipal authorities, and the other officials or elective representatives. These elections shall happen in a separate and independent manner. Those for president, vice president, legislative and parliamentary representatives and of international bodies, on the third Sunday of the month of May and those of the municipal authorities on the third Sunday of the month of February.
- When in the elections celebrated to elect the President of the Republic and the Vice President none of the candidate lists obtains at least more than half of the valid votes cast, a second election shall be affected the last Sunday of the month of June of the same year. In this last election only the two candidate lists that have achieved the highest number of votes shall participate, and the candidate list that obtains the greater number of valid votes cast shall be considered the winner.
- The elections shall take place in accordance with the law and with representation of the minorities when two or more candidates must be elected.
- In cases of extraordinary convocation and referendum, the electoral assemblies shall meet at the latest seventy days after the publication of the law of convocation. The election of authorities cannot coincide with the celebration of a referendum.
Article 210. Referendums
Popular consultations through referendum shall be regulated by a law that determines all that is related to their celebration, in accordance with the following conditions.
- They may not be about the approval or the revocation of the mandate of any elected or appointed authority.
- They shall require prior congressional approval with the vote of two thirds of those present in each chamber.
Chapter II. On the Electoral Organs
Article 211. Organization of the elections
The elections shall be organized, directed, and supervised by a Central Electoral Board and the electoral boards below its office, which have the responsibility of guaranteeing liberty, transparency, equity, and objectivity in the elections.
Section I. On the Central Electoral Board
Article 212. Central Electoral Board
The Central Electoral Board is an autonomous organ with juridical personality and technical, administrative, budgetary and financial independence, whose principal purpose shall be to organize and direct the electoral assemblies for the celebration of elections and or mechanisms of popular participation established by the present Constitution and the laws. It shall have regulatory ability in the matters that are its responsibility.
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The Central Electoral Board shall be integrated by a president and four members and their substitutes, elected for a period of four years by the Senate of the Republic, by the vote of two thirds of the senators present.
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The Civil Registry and the Identity and Electoral Card shall be dependents of the Central Electoral Board.
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During the elections the Central Electoral Board shall assume the direction and command of the public force in accordance with the law.
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The Central Electoral Board shall safeguard that the electoral processes are realized subject to the principles of liberty and equity in the development of the campaigns and transparency in the utilization of financing. Consequently, it shall have the ability to regulate the time periods and limits in the spending of the campaign, as well as the equitable access to the means of communications.
Article 213. Electoral boards
In the National District and in each municipality there shall be an Electoral Board with administrative and contentious functions. In administrative matters they shall be subordinated to the Central Electoral Board. In contentious matters their decisions are appealable before the Superior Electoral Court, in accordance with the law.
Section II. On the Superior Electoral Court
Article 214. Superior Electoral Court
The Superior Electoral Court is the appropriate organ to judge and decide with definitive character on the contentious electoral matters and to ordain over the disagreements that arise internally from the parties, groups, and political movements or between them. It shall regulate, in accordance with the law, the proceedings of its responsibility and all that is related to its administrative and financial organization and functioning.
Article 215. Integration
The Court shall be integrated by no less than three and no more than four electoral judges and their substitutes, appointed for a period of four years by the National Council of the Magistrature, who shall indicate which of them shall occupy the presidency.
Chapter III. On the Political Parties
Article 216. Political Parties
The organization of parties, groups and political movements is free and subject to the principles established in this Constitution. Their conformation and functioning should support themselves in respect for internal democracy and transparency, in accordance with the law. Its essential purposes are:
- To guarantee the participation of male and female citizens in the political processes that contribute to the strengthening of democracy.
- To contribute in equality of conditions, to the formation and manifestation of the citizen will, respecting political pluralism through the proposal of candidate lists to offices of popular election.
- To serve the national interest, the collective well-being and the complete development of Dominican society.
