Oh I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Weiner

I don’t have much to say about the election except that I wish it was already over. Leading up to this week, I have ridden in more vehicles where people have fought (loud voices, yelling, screaming, all common) about the upcoming election. Here’s a rundown of the last few days of the election season.

Wednesday, May 14th: 2 days to election
AM (and into the PM): The men who hang out near my house, as well as some women (yay women-way to be heard!) got together to ‘talk’ politics. There was a HUGE banner for the current president front and center and there have been little ones for both candidates for some time now. What I feel is interesting and which I’m now realizing some of you won’t, all of these banners show the name of the candidate, as well as the candidate’s picture.

PM: “Caravans” of supporters of the 2 main political parties rolled through town, beeping horns, overloaded with political ralliers, of all ages, crying our either “PRD!” or “PLD!” When they finished driving they parked out front (as you’ll remember I live in what could be referred to as the “downtown” of my town) and proceeded to yell at one another over their political differences.

Thursday, May 15th: 1 day to election
AM: Rain, completely halted all political activities.

PM: More of the same from the night prior but, a bit less dramatic, less loud, interestingly enough.

Friday, May 16th: Election Day
AM: 6:00AM to be precise, noise starts as the poll opens at the school near my house. I decide to sleep a bit more and go to visit the polls around 9ish. My dona and project partner (of course, as they are the natural leaders of the community here) are in charge and allow me extra-special clearance in to observe. (Actually, I’m pretty sure no extra-special clearance was needed, the 2 very armed guards at the gate both let me walk right back and one offered me a bit of his breakfast.) What I saw was interesting, after showing their ID cards, voters, who came into the room in groups of 5 “to keep order,” got a ballot, a large sheet of black paper with colorful squares showing the faces and political party names of the various candidates. I was later told that there are 7 people running for president though I’d only heard of 5 before then. There were no other elections on the ballot. Perhaps I did need extra special clearance to get a peak at a ballot. I believe the way it was marked by the voter was with a marker and they simply made a mark on the box of the candidate (and which party, as a single candidate could be the chosen candidate for more than one party) they were voting for. So as I mentioned, my dona and project partner were there to hand out ballots, and they were assisted by 2 other women, there was another person at the door to keep order, and then a group of about 7 or so men with official election ID cards which also showed which party they were there representing. All the men were also leaders in the community. I asked them what exactly their role was and one explained that they are there to help someone with a ballot should someone need such assistance and want it from a member of their party, and to represent to the national party that the elections were done correctly. Something else I noticed was that as people showed their IDs to get their ballots, the woman checking off their name called it out so that these men could here. The men then checked off the person’s name from a list with photos of the community members they had in front of them. I think the idea is that they could later go find all of the members of their parties who had not yet voted later in the day and bring them to the polls. I’d seen these lists (which are quite extensive) being prepared ahead of time.

PM: The day progressed with a large group constantly gathered outside of the school to watch people come in and out. I saw a bit of nagging as some people went in, but pretty much everyone kept their cool. As the day went on people, the men particularly, got drunk. I think this is a pretty big event for the community, much like the Super bowl is for most of America, and like the presidential elections in ’04 were at AU.

The polls closed on schedule at 6 and then we waited for the counting. The poll workers had closed some of the windows but we could still see the results as they tallied them up on the chalk board. The armed guards noticed us crowding (at first it was just a small group of us, just me and a few kids from my youth group) and the one with a club drew it out to direct us back from the gate. I was the first to back away as this was my first time being approached by a guard with a club, though I wasn’t scared, as there was nothing to be scared of; everyone was smiling because they knew they probably shouldn’t be looking in but the guard didn’t mind too much, he too smiled as he moved us back. I got tired of waiting, went to sit, and almost as soon as I did I heard a ruckus. Miguel Vargas, of the PRD, had been declared the winner of the polling place. Obviously, as he’d carried the race here, there was a lot of celebrations for this news. This must have been around 7:45 or so.

I went off with a group of youth to play games, which I won because no one can break me; you know those games where you can’t smile? I’m awesome at them. Around 8:30 or so we heard that Leonel Fernandez, of the PLD, and the current president, had been declared the winner in a few towns near us. Immediately after, the woman who runs the place we were playing told us to go home. She said the street was no place for the kids, or me, as a foreigner/woman/younger person, I’m not sure, but I didn’t need to be told twice. It was a little odd, I felt, to go to bed quite so soon when a winner hadn’t been declared yet, but watching those kids not argue with her and listen to exactly what she’d told us, said a lot about the situation.

Saturday, May 17th
AM: Ruckus began early, from what I could hear, Leonel had won. A group of men was gathered across the street with their huge Leonel sign front and center and were drinking and making merry. I took my time getting ready to leave the house because I was pretty sure (and it turned out to be true) that talking politics, as a PCV who’s not allowed to talk politics and is uncomfortable doing it anyways, was going to be difficult. When I did finally leave, I learned Leonel won with 53% of the vote which means no second vote-that the campaigns are over! Woot! Miguel apparently got 41%. Of course there ended up being no problems after the election in my town, but I agreed that with the amount of alcohol consumed, the passions that rage inside these very politically active Dominicans, many of whom carry guns, that it was better to be safe than sorry and go home.