Editing Joaquín Balaguer (section)

==Defeat and return to power==
In [[1978 Dominican Republic general election|1978]], Balaguer sought another term. Inflation was on the rise, and the great majority of the people had gotten little benefit from the economic boom of the past decade. Balaguer faced [[Antonio Guzmán Fernández|Antonio Guzmán]], a wealthy rancher running under the banner of the [[Dominican Revolutionary Party]]. When election returns showed an unmistakable trend in Guzmán's favor, the military stopped the count. However, amid vigorous protests at home and strong pressure abroad, the count resumed. Guzmán won, marking the first defeat of Balaguer's political career.<ref name="Buckman">{{cite book |title=The World Today Series: Latin America 2007 |last=Buckman |first=Robert T. |year=2007 |publisher=Stryker-Post Publications |location=Harpers Ferry, West Virginia |isbn=978-1-887985-84-0}}</ref> When he left office that year, it marked the first time in the Dominican Republic's history that an incumbent president peacefully surrendered power to an elected member of the opposition.

In the [[1982 Dominican Republic general election|1982 elections]], the PRD's [[Salvador Jorge Blanco]] defeated Balaguer, who had merged his party with the Social Christian Revolutionary Party to form the [[Social Christian Reformist Party]] two years earlier.

Balaguer ran again in the [[1986 Dominican Republic general election|1986 elections]], and took advantage of a split in the PRD and an unpopular austerity program to win the presidency again after an eight-year absence.  By that time, he was 80 years old and almost completely [[blindness|blind]] after living with [[glaucoma]] for many years.