Dominican Electoral Board spent $529,000 on international travel in 18 months

The Dominican Republic's Central Electoral Board (JCE) allocated $529,438.19 to airfare, per diems, and incidental expenses for its members' international missions over a period of just over 18 months. These figures were released by the JCE itself following a public information request from Diario Libre.

Between January 2025 and July 24, 2026, JCE members undertook 71 individual missions, spending 472 days abroad across 23 countries. The bulk of the expenditure, $343,600, covered per diems and pocket money, while $185,838.19 was spent on air tickets. The five main members of the JCE accounted for $512,838.06, or 96.9%, of the total cost.

Air travel predominantly involved business class tickets, with $180,950.56 spent on these fares, representing 97.3% of the air travel budget. In stark contrast, only $4,887.63 was spent on economy class tickets, despite the government's ongoing austerity drive. The JCE purchased 62 business class tickets or mixed-class fares, compared to eight economy class tickets. An additional eight economy flights were covered by invitations from host organizations or countries, incurring no cost to the JCE.

Daily allowances constituted the largest portion of the spending, with a standard rate of $800 per person per day for technical, training, and supervision missions. For instance, a 12-day trip to the Philippines and the United States resulted in $9,600 in per diems for each participating official. Shorter trips, such as an eight-day mission to Germany, cost $6,400 per person, and a 14-day tour of several European countries amounted to $11,200 per person. In some electoral observation missions, the daily allowance was reduced to $300, as seen in trips to Mexico and Colombia. The highest individual per diem expenses were recorded for a 15-day mission by Hirayda Fernández and Samir Chami to León, Spain, for a cybersecurity event.