SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico _ The Dominican Republic celebrated Independence Day on Thursday amid mass protests and the call for officials to step down, as the Caribbean nation is scrambling to put together new municipal elections after botching a Feb. 16 vote.
Speaking to congress during his annual state of the union address, President Danilo Medina said the Organization of American States and other international groups are auditing this month's aborted election even as the country is planning a March 15 do-over.
"This should be a complete investigation that leaves no issue untouched, and the public should be informed about everything that comes out of this investigation," he told congress. "Restoring the trust that we have lost requires, as the very first step, an independent and objective explanation."
As Medina addressed the National Assembly, thousands of people blew horns, waved signs and banged pots outside of the Central Electoral Board _ once again demanding that its members step down amid the lingering crisis.
Thursday's protests were some of the largest yet as local artists, including Eddy Herrera, Janio Lora and merengue star Juan Luis Guerra, rallied the crowds.
"Long live our Dominican Republic!" Guerra told the audience before launching into some of his danceable anthems.
The protests were being promoted as "Trabucazo 2020" _ a reference to the firing of a blunderbuss in 1844 in Santo Domingo that kicked off the country's battle for independence.
The Dominican discontent comes after the nation of 11 million had to halt municipal elections earlier this month when about half of the newly inaugurated electronic ballot machines reported problems.
Daniel Zovatto, the Latin America and Caribbean Director for the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a nongovernmental election watchdog, said it's still unclear if the election day glitches were accidental or a concerted attempt to "sabotage" or manipulate the vote.
"The disastrous failure of the election on Feb. 16 definitely had a cause, even if we cannot rule out other causes yet," he said in telephone interview from Chile. "There was a total lack of professionalism and a terrible level of planning by the Central Electoral Board."
He said the government was rash for trying to roll out untried voting machines on such a large scale. While electronic ballots were only used in 18 municipalities, those areas accounted for more than 70% of all voters.
"The problems were completely predictable," Zovatto said. "Even on Saturday (the day before the vote), it was clear there were problems. ... Their only choice was to suspend the elections or cause an even greater political crisis."
Since the botched vote, authorities briefly detained two people and suspended one official, but they have resisted calls to oust the entire electoral board, arguing that it would be even more disruptive to clean house ahead of the March 15 vote and presidential elections in May.
Zovatto said only two other countries in Latin America use e-voting systems for nation-wide elections: Brazil and Venezuela. While Brazil's system is considered transparent and strong, Venezuela's elections have often been decried as fraudulent.
The voting scandal comes at the end of Medina's second four-year term and as his Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) is struggling to hold on to power, amid fractions within and a surging opposition..
On Thursday, Medina reminded the nation of all the progress that has been made since he took office in 2012 _ as unemployment, poverty and inflation have fallen, and literacy, health indicators and the economy have improved.
The country has seen its GDP grow 6.3% per year on average from 2014 to 2018, the fastest rate in the region..
"We are now the largest economy in Central America and the Caribbean," Medina said. "We are no longer the country that we were eight years ago."
But Medina seemed clear that the voting snafu could tarnish his legacy.
"We have to provide all the guarantees," he told congress about the upcoming votes, "that this doesn't happen again."
