The democratic process at work.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: The Dominican Republic's 1996 national elections

An OAS Observer Mission of twenty-five individuals, coordinated by Santiago Murray, was in the Dominican Republic from May 1 to May 20 to monitor the electoral process. The first round of national elections was held on May 16.

A record number of voters cast ballots for a successor to President Joaquin Balaguer, but the real winner was the democratic process itself.

"Without incidents and with order," is how the country's most respected newspaper, Santo Domingo's Listin Diario, summarized the precedent-setting election. "Overcoming all expectations," the newspaper editorialized, "election day constituted an authentic example of civic responsibility. The lines of voters were cordial, respectful, and tolerant. Citizens exercised their right with fluency and speed."

Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, who joined the observers, said he believed the innovative and elaborate procedures implemented by the country's electoral tribunal, the Junta Central Electoral, "have awakened the trust of both the political parties and citizens."

After visiting a number of the country's 9,946 polling places, the secretary general commented on the good training of local election officials, and noted that "the general experience of the observers indicates that while there may have been some deficiencies in voter registration, they were relatively small and, in many cases, the local authorities solved the problems."

Another prominent foreign observer, former Venezuelan president Luis Herrera Campins, lauded the 2,901,579 Dominicans who cast ballots for "giving not only a contribution to the consolidation of their own democracy, but also an example to the rest of Latin America."

Because no candidate obtained 50 percent of the...