Dominican republic

(Photo : Twitter/NBC Nightly Lies)

Authorities arrested two men who they alleged were involved in Dominican Republic's February 16 election sabotage.

The National Police arrested Colonel Ramon A. Guzman and Claro telecom technician Manuel Antonio Regalado on Wednesday night for plotting to sabotage the February 16 election. 

Police spokesman Frank Felix Duran said the accused are being held on an arrest warrant issued by the court. They are also being charged for violating the Electoral Law.

Duran said the suspects were initially arrested for other crimes, but investigation showed the Claro technician to have audio with evidence of what was done to the equipment. He also expressed his willingness to retrieve the equipment while using his company's uniform and vehicle to cover up the crime.

Manuel Regalado was also identified to have sent a text to Colonel Guzman with allegations of machines being sabotaged. 

"Brother, yesterday they downloaded a different configuration to the system, proving that the counting configuration would not allow that the candidates would not be reflected," he said.

Video footage on social media also showed representatives of JCE arriving the night before without other delegates from other parties present.

The Central Electoral Board halted voting on February 16 due to a series of technical difficulties in the electronic ballot machines. More than 7.4 million voters were due to vote and elect 3,849 positions in 158 municipalities.

Dominican protesters took to the streets after a glitch in the electronic voting system on Sunday's municipal elections stopped operations just four hours after voting began. 

The president of the Dominican Republic's electoral body Julio Cesar Castanos said roughly half of the electronic ballot machines did not work properly and many virtual ballot papers did not load. 

"We are going to initiate a thorough investigation of what happened and why those ballot papers did not load correctly," Castanos said in a press conference.

The ballot machines were used in cities and regions with high population density. These 18 municipalities accounted for 62.4% of the electorate. 

Castanos said failures only occurred in the municipalities that used electronic voting. 

Dominicans are worried there may be more than technical issues behind the cancellation. According to The New York Times, voters noticed the names of candidates who were not a part of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) did not appear on the digital ballots. 

This led many to believe the glitch was intentional in order to benefit the PLD.

The protesters were bearing signs that said 'Don't mess with my democracy' and 'The public is revolting.' Hashtags such as #SeVan (They're leaving) and #PaFueraLaJunta (Out with the JCE) also trended on social media.

Another sign said, "15 mil Millones de pesos a la basura" (15 million pesos in the trash), which speaks of the number of tax pesos spent on the elections. 

Hundred of Dominicans stormed the street in protest of Junta Central Electoral (JCE) board member's alleged corruption. They headed over to the JCE building and demanded the electoral board to resign from their positions.

A video surfaced on the internet showing a tear gas bomb being thrown from inside the JCE headquarters around 8 pm. 

President Medina addressed the public in a televised statement two days after the elections were canceled. 

"It is time to rectify some errors and continue," he said. 

Municipal elections will be continued on March 15.