The Dominican Revolutionary Party ( es, link=no, Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, PRD) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

. Traditionally a left-of-centre party and

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

in nature, the party has shifted since the 2000s toward the political

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. The party's distinctive color is white. Traditionally, the party has two presidents: the "Titular President" and the "Acting President" (and actually, a sort of Vice-President); until 2010 the presidents and the Secretary-General were proscribed to run for any elected office. The party was founded in 1939 by several Dominican expatriated exiles living in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, led by Juan Bosch. It was then established in the Dominican Republic on 5 July 1961. It was the first Dominican party based on populist and democratic leftist principles and an organization based on mass membership. Bosch was elected president in 1962 in what is generally believed to be the first honest election in the country's history. Bosch later left the party in a dispute over its ideological direction, and founded the

Dominican Liberation Party The Dominican Liberation Party ( Spanish: Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, referred to here by its Spanish acronym, the PLD) is a political party in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1973 by former president Juan Bosch, the party, along ...

on 16 December 1973. The PRD has won the presidency three other times—in 1978 ( Antonio Guzmán), 1982 (

Salvador Jorge Blanco José Salvador Omar Jorge Blanco (July 5, 1926 – December 26, 2010) was a politician, lawyer and a writer. He was President of the Dominican Republic, from 1982 to 1986. He was a Senator running for the PRD party. He started his political care ...

) and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

(

Hipólito Mejía Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born 22 February 1941) is a Dominican politician who served as President of the Dominican Republic from 2000 to 2004. During his presidential term in office the country was affected by one of its worst econ ...

). At the legislative elections, on 16 May 2002, the party won 41.9% of the popular vote and 73 out of 150 seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

and 29 out of 31 seats in the

Senate of the Dominican Republic The Senate of the Dominican Republic ( es, Senado de la República Dominicana) is the upper house in the bicameral legislature of the Dominican Republic, and together with the Chamber of Deputies makes up the Congress. The composition and p ...

. Its candidate at the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

on 16 May 2004,

, won 33.6% of the votes, failing to win a second term. In the 16 May 2006 legislative elections, the party formed together with its traditional opponent, the

Social Christian Reformist Party The Social Christian Reformist Party ( es, Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, PRSC) is a Christian democratic right-wing political party in the Dominican Republic. It was established on July 24, 1984, by the union of Joaquín Balaguer's ' ...

, and others the Grand National Alliance, that won 82 out of 178 deputies and 10 out of 32 senators. The Dominican Revolutionary Party led the alliance, however, winning about 60 seats in the chamber of deputies and 6 in the Senate. The party has been criticized for involvement in corruption, allowing right-wing paramilitary groups to operate from its soil for attacks launched into Haiti, and for becoming an increasingly conservative party serving the interests of transnational capital over the poor majority. The last PRD president,

, has been especially criticized for supporting the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

.Sprague, 2013

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Congressional elections

References

*Sprague, Jeb (2013
La Española, sus coaliciones y la solidaridad entre sus fronteras
In English here

*http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88549 Island of Hispaniola: Coalitions and cross-border solidarity

External links

* Political parties established in 1939 Political parties in the Dominican Republic Full member parties of the Socialist International {{DominicanRepublic-party-stub