Dominican President Leonel Fernandez was re-elected to his third term in the country’s presidential election on May 16, boosted by New York voters.
Fernandez won 54 percent of the vote, election officials told the Associated Press. His Dominican Liberation Party defeated Miguel Maldonado of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, who won 40 percent.
Fernandez, a progressive liberal who grew up in Washington Heights, faces hurdles with poverty and finishing the country’s first subway line in the capital of Santo Domingo.
Dominicans living abroad have been able to vote in elections since 2004. Figures have not yet been released on the number of abroad voters, but there were 55,992 eligible voters in New York State. There were more than 30 polling sites in New York City, with at least one in the Bronx in University Heights.
Dominican City Councilman Miguel Martinez (D-Washington Heights) said there will be “minimal change” with the re-election. “Usually when there is a change in government, many families move back to the Dominican Republic,” Martinez said. “Now everything will stay at its normal pace.”
Martinez speculated that Dominicans in New York may be appointed to a cabinet position or be appointed to the Dominican Consulate.
As of 2000, there were 554,638 Dominicans living in New York City, with about a third living in the Bronx, according to a 2003 report published by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.