Dominican Republic sees high voter turnout in presidential elections beset by glitches

Dominican Republic saw a high voter turnout in Sunday's presidential elections that were plagued by delays, technical problems and thousands of polling assistants quitting en masse.

"While there has been a massive attendance of voters, both in the Dominican Republic and abroad, one constant (complaint) has been the numerous reports of delays in voting," the daily Al Momento said on its website.

Dominican civic organization Citizen Participation (PC) held a press conference to present its initial report on the day's polling, underscoring the substantial turnout, according to the daily.

At least 16 different locations around the country reported delays in polls opening, some as long as two and a half hours or more, "which led some voters to leave" before they were able to cast their vote.

Polling stations abroad also reported delays of up to three hours, including in the cities of New York, Madrid, Miami, Paris and London.

In addition, fingerprint scanners that were to used to identify voters failed to function.

Finally, "nearly 3,000 polling assistants quit at the last minute," the PC said.

According to the daily SIN, "more than 3,000 technical assistants, hired and trained during months to work at the polling stations, quit suddenly last night."

At least one political party has called on the Central Electoral Board to present a list of the names of those who quit.

Out of a field of eight presidential candidates, the incumbent, Danilo Medina, was expected to garner the most votes, followed by his closest rival Luis Abinader.

Voters were also electing 32 senators, 190 deputies and mayors.

Official results were not expected until after 7 p.m. local time.

Source: XINHUA