This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (December 2007)

This biographical biography needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2007) (Find sources: Hipólito Mejía – news, books, scholar)

This article's tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2007)

Hipólito Mejía
51st President of Dominican Republic
In office 16 August 2000 – 16 August 2004
Preceded by	Leonel Fernández
Succeeded by	Leonel Fernández
Born	22 February 1941 (1941-02-22) (age 68) Gurabo, Santiago Province
Political party	Dominican Revolutionary Party
Spouse(s)	Rosa Gómez

Hipólito Mejía

Rafael Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (born February 22, 1941, in Gurabo, Santiago Province), is a former President of the Dominican Republic. He served from August 16, 2000 to August 16, 2004.

[edit] Early life

Mejía received a high school diploma Loyola Polytechnic Institute in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, graduating in 1962. Two years later, he attended special programs at North Carolina State University in the United States.

At age twenty-four, he was appointed director and undersecretary of the national Tobacco Institute. In 1978, has was appointed Minister of Agriculture under the government of President Antonio Guzmán Fernández. During this period, agri-business incentive laws were passed and programs to promote rural agriculture development and technification were undertaken.^{[citation needed]}

In 1982, Mejia was defeated in his campaign to become senator from Santiago Province. In 1990, he was named vice-presidential candidate on the ticket of Dominican Revolutionary Party leader José Francisco Peña Gómez.

[edit] Presidency

Running for president as the candidate of the left leaning Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) on a program to increase health, education, and social security services through tax hikes, he was elected on 16 May 2000 in the first round. His main opponents, Danilo Medina and former president Joaquín Balaguer, received 24.9% and 24.6% of the vote, respectively. Mejía took office on 16 August of that year.

During his presidency he supported many popular issues, like social security, helping small businesses, agriculture, improving education, and helping with adequate housing. He received great support from the people during the first two years of his mandate, which caused his party to win the congressional and municipal elections taking control of the Senate with 29 out of 32 senators.

During Mejia's term he discovered the biggest bank fraud in all Latin-American history, Baninter, the country's second largest privately held commercial bank, in a US$2.2B banking fraud.

During his term, Mejía attempted to spread government resources and services to thousands of smaller, rural communities scattered around the country instead of the traditional efforts to concentrate on big cities (where most voters live). He established the country's first social security type retirement system, and created a fixed advanced corporate tax of 1.5% to aid in government revenue collection.

[edit] Criticism

Popularity: President Hipólito Mejía faced both the highest and then the lowest approval ratings for a Constitutional President in recent times.^{[1][2] [3]}

Hipólito Mejía first presidential campaign in 2000 garnered him the first Dominican presidency under then new electoral rules that required a "50 mas 1" (50 percent plus one of the total votes in order to win in the first voting round.) This was in stark contrast of the late PRD leader, Jose Francisco Peña Gómez, who unsuccessfully ran for office three times consecutively (1990, 1994 and 1996) and never received the support that Mejia received in his first attempt.

While holding the seat of Head of State, Mejía actively sought to change then current Constitution in order for it to allow consecutive (while in term) presidential reelections. This was achieved with the aid of his party's majority stake at both Legislative Chambers (Senate and Lower Chamber). The original Constitution prevented the previous president from contending against him in 2000.

After Mejía lost the reelection in 2004, even among PRD members, Mejía has been labelled an azaroso (jinx, a term he himself used often against opposing politicians ^[4][5]) , since after his government, the PRD has consecutively lost the next three electoral ballots: One for congressional elections in 2006, two for presidential elections in (2004 and 2008).^[6]

[edit] References

Most references are translated into English, although their external verifiable sources are written in Spanish. No attempts of 100% textual translations are or will be attempted, but the message conveyed is mostly accurate and following Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View.