1996 Dominican Republic presidential election
| |||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 78.63% (first round) 9.28pp 76.80% (second round) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
Second round results by province | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Presidential elections were held in the Dominican Republic on 16 May 1996, with a second round on 30 June. Whilst José Francisco Peña Gómez won the most votes in the first round, he was defeated by Leonel Fernández in the second round, after the Social Christian Reformist Party, whose candidate had lost in the first round, declared their support for Fernández. Voter turnout was 78.63% in the first round and 76.80% in the second.
Conservatives and business interests opposed Peña Gómez. Peña Gómez, whose parents were Haitian, faced nationalist, anti-Haiti rhetoric in the campaign.
The elections were considered free and fair.