President of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez Reyna

The unprecedented move by President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, and his Partitdo De LA Liberacion Dominicana (PLD), to fly his supporters living in the Turks and Caicos Islands to the Dominican Republic for free to vote on Election Day is paying off.

Owner of Air Turks and Caicos (the airline contracted by the PLD), Lyndon Gardiner, speaking with The SUN from the Dominican Republic said that the response has been overwhelming thus far as the May 16 th General Election gets closer.

“The response to the gesture by the President has been overwhelming and a lot of people have taken up to offer. I am very elated by the response and I know they are all keen to support him once they get here.”

Gardiner who is a supporter of Leonel is confident that all of the persons coming from the TCI will support the PLD and usher in another for years of good government.

“He (Leonel) has reached out to the people here and shown them that he has their best interest at heart and wants to have a stronger tie with his people living in the TCI. In fact there have even been discussions of establishing a consulate in the TCI so the people can easily renew passports and documents such as birth certificates and so on.”

Although there are a few more days before the election Gardiner confirmed that over 1000 persons have booked already and he expects more to register before the end of the week.

Emissary of the Dominican Republic Ms. Isabel Valeras had only last week in this newspaper commented that the PLD government believes that they are about 12000 Dominicans living in the TCI and those votes are important to the party.

“We believe that there are about 10, 000- 12,000 Dominicans living throughout the TCI and in any election, every vote is important. Support thus far has being going very well as a lot of people here have expressed a desire to support President Leonel Fernandez Reyna and the PLD party,” she added.

The flights will be leaving from the 12th- 15th at various times and will be returning the days after the elections. All persons here wanting to vote should contact the Dominican Republic Commission consisting of Vasquez, Frank Rodriguez, Cesilia Lightbourne and Arcadio Guareno.