List of municipalities of the Dominican Republic
The municipalities of the Dominican Republic are, after the provinces, the second level of the political and administrative division of the Dominican Republic.
The division of provinces into municipalities is established in the Constitution and further regulated by Law 5220 on the Territorial Division of the Dominican Republic. It was enacted in 1959 and has been frequently amended to create new provinces, municipalities and lower-level administrative units.
Municipalities may be further divided into secciones and parajes. Municipal districts may be formed in the case of municipalities with several urban centres.
The provinces as the second level of political and administrative division contain at least two municipalities. The Distrito Nacional, which is neither a municipality nor a province, consists of only one municipality, Santo Domingo.
Administration
According to the Constitution and the law, the municipalities are administered by the municipality's Municipal Office, which is a legal entity in its own right consisting of two bodies: the alcadía, with the alcalde, and the Municipal Council, with at least five members. The Municipal Council is an exclusively normative, regulatory and supervisory body, the Mayor's Office the executive one. The mayor is a voting member of the Municipal Council. He and his deputy, as well as the regidores and their deputies, are elected by the electorate on the occasion of elections held nationally every four years.If a municipality consists of more than one urban center, the additional centres may be elevated to the status of municipal district, with the remaining district of the municipality called cabecera. The administration of the municipal district is the responsibility of a municipal district office, which includes the director and a municipal district council with at least three members. The director and his deputy, as well as the vocales and their deputies, are elected by the electorate on the occasion of elections held nationally every four years. They represent the municipal district to the municipality and are subordinate to it.
If a municipality is further divided into secciones, the municipal council appoints an alcalde pedáneo for each of them. He reports to the mayor or, if his sección is in a municipal district, to its director. If the municipality is further divided into parajes, the municipal council appoints an ayudante del alcalde pedáneo for each of them.
Municipalities are often given special designations because of their number of inhabitants: ciudad in the case of urban centers with over 10,000 inhabitants or the capital of a province, villas in the case of towns with over 1,000 inhabitants or seats of a local government, poblados in the case of villages.