AFTER a night of counting ballots in the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, of the governing Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), declared victory early Monday.

    Medina received just over 51 percent of May 18’s vote with 83 percent of the ballots counted, according to the Caribbean country’s Electoral Commission. His closest rival, Hipolito Mejia, the candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), received nearly 47 percent. The result just gave Medina the margin needed to avoid a second round of voting.

    After casting his vote Sunday, Medina told reporters he was convinced he would win, and said that after the election he hoped the Caribbean nation would unite to “overcome the problems of poverty and income disparity,” and “create conditions for social inclusion.”

    “With this victory I want to unite the Dominican Republic,” Medina, told a small group of supporters and PLD leaders at a PLD office in the capital.

    “I want to recognize my adversaries publicly, because in this election campaign they forced me to be the best,” he added.

    Holding out an olive branch to his 71-year-old rival, he added that, “Hipolito Mejia should feel good because the Dominican people vindicated him through this campaign.”

    Medina, 60, is representing PLD of the outgoing President Leonel Fernandez, who spent US$2.6 billion on major infrastructure projects such as a subway system, hospitals and roads to modernize a country that is the top tourist destination in the Caribbean but remains largely poor. Fernandez was barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive term.

    Medina’s election suggests a public content with the way things are going on the island.

    The high cost of living, unemployment, corruption and a soaring crime rate were among top issues for voters.

    Many voters conceded that Medina, an economist and stalwart of the PLD, wasn’t a particularly exciting candidate, but said they were eager for stability in a country with a history of economic and political turmoil.

    “I don’t want major change,” said Amauris Chang, a 59-year-old shop owner. “I want the country to grow and I want it to be peaceful, and I think that’s a common idea among people who are civilized.”

    Medina’s vice president will be Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez, Leonel Fernandez’s wife and outgoing first lady. Popular with women voters, Cedeno, a 44-year-old mother of three, used her position as first lady to work to reduce poverty and on children and women’s issues.

    In an interview, Medina said his top priority was to make sure opportunities are made available to all Dominicans.

    He said he would work to create opportunities for young people.

    “I want to build a middle-class society. That is my main goal — to have a population that is able to go shopping, to have the capacity to consume,” he said.

    Medina said he wants to “create a society of inclusion that promotes opportunities for all.”

    “This is a country that has created a lot of wealth in recent years. My job is to make sure that wealth trickles down,” he said.

    It is an ambitious goal for a country that has seen some growth, but a number of ingrained obstacles.

    “The Dominican Republic is one country that had high rates of growth before the economic downfall,” said Johanna Mendelson Forman, a senior associate for the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    But challenges include high costs of energy on the island, and the difficulties of sharing an island with the more fragile Haiti, she said. Health issues in Haiti, like a cholera outbreak, can easily cross the border in the Dominican Republic.

    Overall, the country had a good eight years under Fernandez, and one can expect to see the investments he made continue under Medina, Mendelson Forman said.

    Medina has been by Fernandez’s side for quite a while, and “he knows where all the ghosts are buried,” which can be a good thing, she said.

    As president, Medina said he would focus on education, too.=

    On the campaign trail, he promised to spend 4 percent of GDP on education, and said he intends to see that through. A key to lifting people out of poverty, and the country as a whole, he said, is to have an educated workforce.

    In recent years, the country has had one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America and has significantly reduced its poverty rate to 34 percent from 44 percent a decade ago.

    The Caribbean nation depends heavily on tourism, remittances from Dominicans living overseas, aid from the International Monetary Fund and cheap oil from Venezuela.

    Although he said his country will continue to have a close relationship with Hugo Chavez, he sees Brazil’s recent success as the path to emulate.

    People are “expecting significant changes,” he said.

    The Dominican Republic has also become an important route for drug smugglers seeking to reach the United States through nearby Puerto Rico and there are widespread concerns about the influence of drug trafficking.

    He also addressed the issue of drug legalization, saying it does not matter whether Latin America legalizes or not.

    For legalization to have any impact, the conversation has to happen in the United States, where the demand is, not in Latin America where the supply is, he said.

    He is also expected to push for tax reform and tackle energy distribution in a country that suffers blackouts, and he should have no trouble passing legislation through congress, says political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

    Eurasia also calls Medina “market-friendly.” That means a lot in a country where corruption and inefficient bureaucracy make business difficult, according to the World Economic Forum’s “Global Competitiveness Report.”

    “We think Mr. Medina’s win would be well-received by the markets,” writes Boris Segura, Latin America analyst at investment bank Nomura Securities.

    “First, Mr. Medina is likely to attain more governability during the next term (2012-16). … Second, another PLD administration would also be more likely to hit the ground running in terms of economic policymaking.”

    Medina was born in Arroyo Cano, San Juan Province, in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. He is the oldest of eight brothers born of Juan Pablo Medina and Amelia Sanchez.

    When he was 18 years old, he became a student leader, founding the San Juan de la Maguana branch of the Frente Revolucionario Estudiantil Nacionalista at the UASD. When Professor Juan Bosch founded the Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana in 1973, Medina joined him. He studied economics at Instituto Tecnologico Santo Domingo (INTEC), and graduated magna cum laude in 1984.

    Medina has been a member of the Central Committee of the PLD since 1983. He was elected to Congress in 1986, 1990 and 1994. During that final term, he was elected president of the Dominican House. He served as the spokesman for his political party and was a member of the Latin American Parliament.

    Medina was secretary of state twice, both under the leadership of Fernandez.

    In 1987, he married psychologist Candida Montilla and has three daughters.(SD-Agencies)