Written by Dave Sherwood
(Reuters) – Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader, who is preparing for a second term after winning 58.85 percent in the elections that took place on Sunday, inherited a nightmare scenario when he took office as president for the first time in August 2020.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cases in the Caribbean island nation rose to more than 86,000, shutting down the region's top tourist destination and devastating its economy.
Now the economy is booming, with the number of tourists last year reaching 10.8 million, and growth is expected to reach 5% in 2024, the World Bank says, which is among the highest rates in Latin America. Poverty is creeping down, and the quality of education is rising.
Abi Nader's success in guiding his nation through an unprecedented global crisis was the basis for his landslide election victory, cementing his status as one of the most popular politicians in the country and the Americas.
“Before 2020, Dominicans believed that politicians came to power only to enrich themselves at the expense of the people’s suffering,” said Jacqueline Jimenez, co-editor of Dominican Politics in the 21st Century.
“Now, through this new government, that mentality has changed.”
Abi Nader, 56, has also made it a priority to clean up the country's dirty politics.
Ahead of his first term in office, tens of thousands of Dominicans took to the streets in the largest demonstrations of anger over corruption in decades, following a landmark bribery case against senior officials.
On his first day in office, Abi Nader chose as Attorney General Myriam Germain Brito, a former Supreme Court justice.
One year later, the European Union awarded her the Human Rights Prize “for her struggle against corruption and in favor of transparency and justice.”
The Abi Nader administration also worked to strengthen electoral laws, receiving honors in April from the Organization of American States for changes that improved transparency and fairness in campaign financing.
But there is still much to be done during Abi Nader's second term, even after his concrete steps to strengthen the country's still nascent institutions, said Dominican political strategist Giovanni Vicente Romero.
Washington-based Vicente Romero, who knows Abu Nader personally, told Reuters that Abu Nader's government has faced criticism for its inability or desire to bring its people to justice, especially those who belong to his inner circle.
“For Abi Nader to seal his legacy against corruption, he must look inward to achieve a lasting breakthrough.”
Political rivals also claim that Tesla-driving Abenader, a wealthy former businessman with a reported net worth of $76 million, which places him among Latin America's richest leaders, may not be as clean as he has sought to make out.
A group of news organizations led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) found in 2021 that Abinader, who is also the richest public official in the Dominican Republic, owned at least seven offshore companies — the details of which were murky — when he was elected.
Abi Nader, who has not been convicted of any crime, said he established the offshore companies at a time when the country's corporate law was considered outdated.
Since the beginning of his administration, he has donated his presidential salary to social programs.
Since Dominican electoral law limits Abi Nader's term as president, his legacy will also depend on how he handles the fallout from the still-blasting crisis in neighboring Haiti.
Abi Nader donned a hard hat in 2022 and helped pour the first concrete for the much-publicized border wall with Haiti — which businessman Elon Musk promoted on social media — and also called for the deportation of illegal immigrants.
“Our motto from now on will be: Either we fight together to save Haiti, or we fight alone to protect the Dominican Republic!” Abi Nader informed the United Nations in February.
This position gives him another domestic political advantage, says Eric Farnsworth, a Latin American expert on the Council of the Americas Society.
“He faces some criticism… outside the DRC but not much internally, which belittles Haiti as a political issue,” Farnsworth said.