DR News
The staging of the rescheduled municipal elections on Sunday, 15 March 2020 is said to cost Dominican taxpayers RD$1,578 million, according to the budget approved for the event by the Budget Agency. The Medina administration has said that RD$753 million will be available for distribution to political parties participating in the event.
As reported in El Dia, the elections have cost the government more than RD$4 billion, of which RD$1,008 million were allocated to purchase the now discard e-voting devices.
Public Health Minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas explained that the extraordinary municipal election scheduled for Sunday, 15 March 2020 would not be compromised by the Covid-19 virus because so far there has been no community spread in the country. The Health Minister maintains that the country’s first six confirmed cases have all been imported.
The Citizen Participation (Participación Ciudadana – PC) civic movement announced on Tuesday, 10 March 2020, that it will deploy more than 2,600 election observers during the extraordinary municipal elections to be held on 15 March. The election is the same that was aborted on 16 February after the e-voting machines did not upload the opposition ballots correctly. The number of observers is 30% more than the 1,800 accredited observers that had been approved for the earlier election.
Sonia Diaz Inoa, the general coordinator for PC, said that the observers will be stationed at the 158 Municipal Electoral Boards. She said the observers will be divided into those that will be mobile, observing the election day in different voting places and in the streets, and those that will oversee the opening of the voting tables to the transmission of the vote in one of the voting centers.
She said that democracy and transparency of the process depend on each and every citizen.
A digital platform, https://atentocontuvoto.org/ enables citizens to report any irregularities on election day. The platform provides a georeferenced map for reporting irregularities and crimes during the campaign days and on the election day. It enables the posting of photographs, videos or audios.
PC also encourages people to send cases of irregularities and more on the election to them at delitoelectoral@pciudadana.org or the WhatsApp 809-764-4952.
“These tools are for each citizen to commit to being a guardian of our weak democracy so that we do not remain silent if we witness any electoral crime or offense and report it,” she said. The new facilities are enabling the organization to gather evidence on political patronage and motivate the state to undertake its responsibility to combat this practice.
“Democracy is built by all of us, and the transparency of the process depends on each and every one of us. This tool is for each citizen to commit to being a guardian of our weak democracy so that we do not remain silent if we witness any electoral crime or offense and report it,” she said.
https://z101digital.com/participacio…s-municipales/
Source: DR1, z101digital
Mar 12, 2020
The XXIX Copa Merengue is being played at the courts of the Parque del Este Tennis Center. The event is a J2 level youth tournament (U18), the third-highest in the ranking of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). For the event, 154 players from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia are coming. Weronika Baszak from Poland, ranked 11th in the world in the junior category, is playing in the tournament.
Competitors are boys and girls 18 years or younger. The winners add 200 points to their ITF Junior ranking. Winners of doubles get to add 150 points.
The Dominican Republic is represented by Ana Zamburek, Alejandro Gandini, Alejandro Santana, Enmanuel Muñoz, Maikel Villalona, Daniel Baquero, Lía Espinal, Kissmel Cedano, Ana Pérez, Valeria Schad, Yanire Marte and María Mella.
The event is taking place from 9 – 14 March 2020 and is on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar.
https://www.itftennis.com/en/tournam…-dom-02a-2020/
Source: DR1, itftennis
Mar 12, 2020
Yo Smoker Cigar is a newly opened shop in Cabarete. Since November 2019 we have been offering 70 different flavors (all are natural!).
- Large selection
- Various sizes
- Mild, Medium, Strong
- All hand-rolled using a mix of international leaves brought to DR
The cigars can be also purchased online in various boxes and delivered directly to your home. We accept Visa, Mastercard, PayPal using Shopify.
Contact details:
Carretera principal
Cabarete town center, DR
www.yosmoker.com
PUERTO PLATA.- The rains that have been recorded since Saturday night have caused urban flooding in sectors of the main municipality of San Felipe de Puerto Plata and other communities in this.
From Monday noon, in different areas of this city, there have been floods of roads and homes, such as the widening sectors Dubeau (Los Callejones), La Viara, West Beach, Nuevo Renacer (Aguas Negras), Barrio Haiti, Las Mercedes, Barrio Puerto Rico, and Las Flores.
The floods are caused by the rains that have overflowed the creeks El Violón, Los Domínguez, Los Mameyes and several ravines that cross the urban part of this town, to which is added the obstruction of storm drainage by garbage and sediments dragged by sewage water.
The vehicular traffic was stunted by the large amount of water that covered several sections of the Manolo Tavárez Justo avenues (in front of the nursing home), Guancho Escaño that joins the two local sea docks, President Caamaño (former Colon) and Luis Geneva.
Also, in the Historic Center, several streets registered floods such as: Camino Real, March 30, Luis Espinosa and Duarte, and other roads that were flooded are Antera Mota, José Del Carmen Ariza, and Antigua Vía Férrea.
“It is a pity that due to the lack of vision from our municipal authorities, Puerto Plata on rainy days becomes a Venice but in the Caribbean,” the young university student Wilmer Joel Hernández expressed on Facebook blaming the flooding to the lack of forecast by the local City Council.
In front of the command of the Navy of the Dominican Republic (Navy), a kind of Olympic pool was created since the drains that are in that area were supposedly blocked by the construction work of a tourist terminal in the local bay.
Volunteers of the Civil Defense and relief agency Rescue Amber, proceeded to evacuate citizens residing in places vulnerable to landslides, also removed fallen trees and debris that covered the drains in the tracks.
The communicator Wellington de Jesús Martínez reported that in the municipality of Sosúa several communities have been held incommunicado after the overflow of Bella Vista and a ravine that crosses the Maranatha sector.
Similarly, rainfall overflowed rivers, streams, and ravines in Imbert, Maimon, Yánica Arriba, Montellano, Cabarete, and Sabaneta de Yánica causing mild flooding in some areas of those communities.
The whale watching season has started again. The first humpbacks have been observed and the first tour boats are already waiting in the bay of Samaná. The season runs from January 15 to March 30. Again it is emphasized that keeping a distance and not disturbing the whales is neccessary. In 2019 there were 71,261 tourists who came to watch the whales, this year it is hoped that the figure of 80,000 will be exceeded. Around 1500 to 2000 humpback whales come from the north of the Atlantic Ocean to the coasts of the Dominican Republic in this period to mate and give birth. About 200 new whales were spotted, including 24 whale calves. Where they can be seen in large numbers, is in the National Park ‘Los Haitises’ near the peninsula of Samaná. The humpback whale and some dolphins have also been observed last year under the coast of Sosúa and Puerto Plata and that is really special and very exceptional.
Whether we are lucky enough to be able to observe these mighty mammals in the bay of Sosúa this season is uncertain, but we hope for it.
Source: Sosua News
Jan 19, 2020
Best Lyfe Fashion is a new stylish luxury apparel store opened in Pedro Clisante, Sosua. We bring original quality to our clients. Gucci, Prada, LV, Fendi, Versace, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Jimmy Choo, Saint Laurent.
Our range of products includes:
- Fashion shoes for men and women
- Sneakers
- Belts
- Bags
- Wallets
- iPhone cases
- Sunglasses and more…
Opening hours:
Mon – Fri 10 am – 6:30 pm
Saturday 9 am – 3 pm
Sunday closed
Contact Details:
Calle Pedro Clisante #10,
Sosua, Dominican Republic
Tel: 809-571-4815
Cell/Whatsapp: 1 929-269-6644
Instagram
Facebook
Map:
Danilo Feliz Torres, the husband of British ex-pat Lindsay Firth, and two of his sons, have been formally charged with the murder. Prosecutors are asking for 25-30 years in jail and no possible parole. Feliz Torres is the lead suspect in the murder of Firth.
On 16 December 2019, El Caribe newspaper gives details on Danilo Féliz Torres. It explains he had run in the PLD primaries for mayor in the municipality of Guayacanes in the province of San Pedro de Macorís in 2010. At the time, the political party disavowed his win.
El Caribe reports that in March 2010, the Contentious Chamber of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) accepted an appeal filed by Féliz Torres, candidate for mayor of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) for the municipality of Guayacanes. Then through resolution No.53-2010, the court ordered the PLD to recognize the rights acquired by Danilo Féliz Torres, as he received most votes in the referred municipality and should enjoy the full exercise of his civil and political rights.
But during the public hearing held on 9 March 2010, the PLD political delegate, César Pina Toribio, gave reasons for revoking the win on grounds that he had evidence that Feliz was blacklisted as part of then fugitive drug trafficker José Figueroa Agosto’s network.
El Caribe says the version was confirmed by Colonel José Armando Brito Melo, police commander in the province of Santiago Rodríguez, where the crime occurred. Colonel Brito Melo had said that four people, including two children of Feliz Torres and another man who allegedly participated in the murder, would be sent to justice for the murder of the woman.
The 64-year-old British woman’s body was found buried 200 meters from her home in the community of Cacique in the municipality of Monción, in the province of Santiago Rodríguez. The English writer and lawyer had been married to 50-year old Dominican Danilo Féliz Torres for 15 years. The British woman told about her love and struggles in the Dominican Republic in two fiction novels, “What About Your Saucepans? And “Life After My Saucepans?” for sale on Amazon.
Source: DR1, Elcaribe
Dec 21, 2019
The Tax Agency has extended to 31 December 2019 the selling of vehicular circulation permits at 611 branches of 31 financial entities nationwide. The DGII says that as of 2 January, DIGESETT officers have been instructed to tow vehicles that do not present the stickers on their front windows. Those not getting their sticker in time will need to pay a RD$2,000 fine.
At the first deadline for the renewal, 1,159,099 units of vehicles had already renewed their tag of a fleet of 1,374,321 units, for 84.3%. There were 215,222 taxpayers that needed to get the sticker known as the “marbete.”
The amount collected so far was RD$1.9 billion. It is estimated that RD$2.25 billion will be eventually collected.
Source: DR1, Hoy
Dec 21, 2019
