SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, May 12 (UPI) -- Final speeches began Wednesday in Santo Domingo for the three main candidates competing in Sunday's Dominican Republic presidential election.
There are 23 parties and 11 candidates participating in the elections, with some candidates running on multi-party tickets.
Sunday's elections will be the first in the nation's history giving Dominican citizens living abroad the right to vote.
Election officials expect more than 5 million Dominican citizens to vote from the Dominican Republic, the United States, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Spain.
The current president and the presidential candidate for the Dominican Revolutionary Party, Hipolito Mejia, will speak Wednesday while the ex-president and candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party, Leonel Fernandez, will speak on Thursday. The Reformist Social Christian Party's candidate, Eduardo Estrella, will lead an event on Friday.
A radio and television channel will transmit the speeches by the candidates from the three principal parties.
