Dominican Liberation Party

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Dominican Republic
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The Dominican Liberation Party (Spanish: Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, or PLD) is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic, and has a liberal (center-right) position.

The party has been elected into office twice now with Leonel Fernández as President of the Dominican Republic in the 1996 and 2004 elections, the latter one being held on 16 May 2004. In May 2006 the party and its allies gained control of both houses of Congress.

At the legislative elections, 16 may 2002, the party won 29.1 % of the popular vote and 41 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 2 out of 31 seats in the Senate. Its candidate at the presidential election of 16 may 2004, Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna, won 57.1 % of the vote.

Founded by Juan Bosch in 1973, the PLD originally was a leftist party. Today the party is seen gravitating towards a center-right platform agreeing with many of its neoliberal policies. Bosch ran for president as the party’s candidate several times, but did not win. Following Bosch’s retirement, Fernandez became the leader of the party and won the 1996 presidential elections. He did not run for another term in 2000, but returned to the presidency in 2004. The party's logo is a yellow five-pointed star on a purple background.

In the 16 May 2006 legislative elections, the party led the Progressive Bloc, that won 96 out of 178 deputies and 22 out of 32 senators.