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Dominican incumbent president declares reelection victory

Xinhua, May 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Dominican President Danilo Medina declared winning reelection on Monday as the presidential vote count drags on.

Medina declared his win in a national address from the ruling party's campaign headquarters, "calling on supporters to celebrate in the streets and to invite those who didn't vote for him", the daily Noticias SIN reported.

The latest tally by the country's Central Electoral Board shows that with over 58 percent of the ballots counted, Medina won nearly 62 percent of the votes, well over the 51 percent needed to win an absolute majority.

His closest rival, Luis Abinader, was in a distant second place, with 35 percent of the votes.

The electoral authority's manual tally of the vote "slowed to a crawl," delaying the official results, the English-language daily Dominican Today reported.

The votes were designed to be tabulated electronically, but technical problems forced election officials to do a manual count, the daily said.

Voting for the presidential election began on Sunday at polling stations across the country and around the world. Voters were also tasked to choose 222 members of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Endi