Today's DR1 News:
PLD and PRD sign historic pact
The two main political parties of the last 20 years, the PLD and the PRD, signed a cooperation agreement yesterday, Monday, 7 September 2015. The PLD was originally founded by dissidents from the PRD.
While the PRD was the leading opposition party in the 2012 national election, independent polls now show that its followers have declined to below the percentage needed to maintain legal status as a party. By allying with the PLD, the party will be able to maintain its legal status and the considerable state funding it receives.
The PLD and PRD signed a political agreement for the three levels of election in May 2016. The pact was reached after PRD legislators agreed to vote in favor of the amendment to change the 2010 Constitution to enable incumbent President Danilo Medina to run for re-election.
President Danilo Medina and PRD president Miguel Vargas Maldonado spoke at the event. President Danilo Medina said the alliance opens doors to the creation of policies that would provide stability and solutions to the country's long-standing problems.
Vargas Maldonado read a list of commitments to Medina administration programs that he would be supporting. He highlighted that Medina was now sure to win the 2016 presidential election.
During the event, there was no mention of any other candidates proposed jointly for the legislative and municipal election that is being held concurrently with the presidential election.
The witnesses to the agreement were Luis Ayala, Secretary General of the Socialist International, former President of Ecuador Rodrigo Borja, former President of Guatemala Alvaro Colon, and former Governor of Puerto Rico Anibal Acevedo Vidal.
The PLD had said that party president and former President Leonel Fernandez would not be attending due to a prior engagement overseas. However, Fernandez returned to the country from the US earlier in the day and refused to speak to journalists about his attendance. Before the constitutional change, polls showed that Fernandez was the most popular PLD pre-candidate eligible to run for President under the 2010 Constitution.
The points of the agreement
Article 1. The objective of the agreement is that the PLD and PRD will be allies in the next presidential, congressional and municipal elections in 2016 and will form a National Unity Government.
Article 2. The program to be implemented is to adopt the following public policies that lead to social inclusion and the modernization of the State:
2.1 To make a major effort to approve the law of electoral reform and the law of political parties.
2.2 To implement a pact for citizen security as this is being demanded by the people.
2.3 To apply social policies to ensure an annual salary increase for employees.
2.4 To support the health sector.
2.5 To assign an adequate percentage for education and teacher training.
2.6 To apply effective social policies to increase the housing stock to benefit the middle class and the poorest sectors of the population nationwide.
2.7 To implement the electricity pact and ensure that electricity can be delivered across the country taking into account the development of alternative energy sources.
2.8 To modernize public transport.
2.9 To boost the Dominican rural areas with financial support for agriculture and the distribution of better quality seeds.
2.10 To implement the 911 emergency system nationwide.
2.11 To continue developing tourism in order to reach the target of 10 million tourists a year by strengthening the existing tourist areas and developing new ones sustainably, such as Bahia de las Aguilas, Los Corbanitos, Bayahibe and Montecristi province.
2.12 To improve laws and mechanisms for total transparency in public expenditure.
2.13 To promote public private alliances to develop major projects in benefit of the country.
2.14. To defend national sovereignty by prioritizing the dignity and defense of the country and implementing a major economic and social program to secure and develop the border region.
2.15 To implement social policies to give dignity, protection, security, wellbeing and development of the family, women, children and disabled and elderly people, and eliminate exclusion due to personal social or economic situations.
Article 3. Candidates in common. The PLD and PRD agree to have common candidates in the majority of the presidential, congressional and municipal levels.
Article 4. The parties promise to respect the quota of women as established by law.
Article 5. The candidates who have the right to run as PRD will be proposed only by the president, Miguel Vargas.
Article 6. The parties will agree on the PRD's participation in the Executive of the Shared Government of National Unity headed by President Danilo Medina.
Article 7. The parties agree that any change to this agreement will be agreed by both parties and will be in writing.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-repu...ra-el-candidato-del-pld-y-del-prd-en-comicios
