The Central Electoral Board of the Dominican Republic spent $35,922.60, equivalent to approximately 2.19 million Dominican pesos, to send two of its members on a 14-day mission across four European countries in March 2026.
Magistrates Samir Rafael Chami Isa and Hirayda Marcelle Fernández Guzmán traveled to Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain as part of a technical assignment linked to the formation of Offices for the Coordination of Overseas Electoral Logistics. The journey took place two years ahead of the nation's next scheduled presidential and congressional elections.
Official expenditure records provided directly to Dominican newspaper Diario Libre by the electoral authority show that the high cost of the trip stands in sharp contrast to the low turnout recorded among Dominican expatriates in those countries during the 2024 presidential elections.
The Central Electoral Board, known locally as the Junta Central Electoral or JCE, is the autonomous constitutional body responsible for organizing national elections and managing the civil registry in the Dominican Republic. To accommodate its large diaspora, the nation allows citizens living abroad to vote in federal contests through designated overseas electoral constituencies.
Breakdown of travel and accommodation costs
Data provided by the electoral authority reveals that the $35,922.60 expenditure was incurred exclusively by the two participating magistrates. A total of $22,400 was distributed in daily per diems, with each official receiving $11,200 to cover 14 days of travel at a daily rate of $800.
Airfare accounted for the remaining $13,522.60 of the total cost, with both tickets purchased in executive class. Flight costs for Chami Isa reached $6,861.30, while airfare for Fernández Guzmán totaled $6,661.30.
The itinerary spanned six European cities: Zurich in Switzerland, Milan in Italy, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Barcelona, Valencia, and Madrid in Spain. The specific objective of the tour was to receive proposals from candidates seeking to join the local Offices for the Coordination of Overseas Electoral Logistics, known as OCLEE.
These logistic coordination offices are administrative bodies established under Dominican Law 20-23, which mandates that an electoral coordination office must operate within each designated voting jurisdiction abroad to manage election logistics and voter services.
Low voter participation across European destinations
The four countries visited by the delegation comprise nearly the entirety of the Dominican Republic's third overseas electoral constituency. Together, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain account for 93.8 per cent of all registered Dominican voters in that electoral zone.
Despite an electoral roll of 140,242 registered voters across the four nations during the 2024 presidential election, only 37,079 voters exercised their right to vote, representing an overall turnout rate of 26.44 per cent.
Voter participation varied considerably across the four European destinations. Spain concentrated the largest number of registered voters and total ballots cast, with 28,800 people voting out of 107,861 registered citizens.
In Italy, 4,331 of the 20,421 registered citizens voted in the election, while in Switzerland, only 1,732 of the 8,689 registered voters cast ballots. The Netherlands stood as an exception to the broader trend of low turnout, recording 2,216 votes out of 3,271 registered citizens.
Per diem rates compared to United Nations standards
The daily per diem allowance of $800 granted to each magistrate exceeds the international reference rates established by the United Nations International Civil Service Commission for the cities included in the tour.
The United Nations reference scale sets daily per diem rates, which cover lodging, meals, and incidental expenses, at $463 for Switzerland, $478 for Milan, $329 for the Netherlands, and between $327 and $448 for the visited cities in Spain.
The $800 daily allocation provided by the Dominican electoral board surpassed the UN benchmark for Milan, the highest reference figure among the visited locations, by $322 per day. The allocation was also more than double the UN reference rate set for the Netherlands.
While the United Nations benchmarks provide an international standard for official travel expenses, they do not constitute a legally binding limit on spending decisions made by the Dominican electoral agency.
Broader institutional travel spending
The March 2026 European tour represents the second most expensive international trip reported by the Central Electoral Board over the past 18 months. It was surpassed only by a delegation sent to Leon, Spain, to attend the Cybersecurity Summer BootCamp.
During the 18-month period analyzed, the electoral board reported spending a total of $529,438.19 on per diems, pocket money, and airfare. Calculated at an exchange rate of 61 Dominican pesos per US dollar, the total travel expenditure equals approximately 32.3 million pesos.
These disbursements covered travel conducted by the institution's five regular board members and three alternate members. The five regular members accounted for the vast majority of the expenditure, spending $512,838.06 of the total amount.
The spending on the European mission represents only a portion of the total cost required to organize Dominican voting operations abroad, as administrative expenditures traditionally escalate during the formal preparation and execution of election cycles.
Administrative preparations and missing reports
Two weeks prior to the magistrates' departure for Europe, the electoral board officially approved the appointment of auxiliary personnel for its Overseas Service Offices, known as OSE, located in Zurich, Milan, Barcelona, and the Netherlands.
However, official minutes from the board's ordinary sessions available through June 2026 do not include a final report detailing the outcomes or achievements of the March technical mission, even though reports from subsequent international trips were formally recorded.
Newspaper Diario Libre submitted a formal request to the Central Electoral Board asking for clarification regarding the total cost of the mission, the administrative criteria used to set the $800 daily per diem rate, and the specific results obtained during the trip.
The Central Electoral Board had not provided a response to the information request at the time of publication.
