The Dominican Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Dominicano or PRD) is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic. It has a left of centrist position, social democratic in name. The party's distinctive color is white.
The party was founded in 1939 by Dominican exiles in Havana, Cuba, led by Juan Bosch. It was then established in the Dominican Republic in 1961. It was the first Dominican party based on populist 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 direction, and founded the Dominican Liberation Party.
The PRD has won the presidency three other times--in 1978 (Antonio Guzmán), 1982 (Salvador Jorge Blanco) and 2000 (Hipólito Mejía).
At the legislative elections, on the 16 May 2002, the party won 41.9% of the popular vote and 73 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 29 out of 31 seats in the Senate of the Dominican Republic. Its candidate at the presidential election on the 16th of May 2004, Hipólito Mejía, 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, and others the Grand National Alliance, that won only 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.
Famous quotes containing the word party:
“Whether a party can have much success without a woman present I must ask others to decide, but one thing is certain, no party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)