The Listin Diario newspaper reports that 13 senators of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) have introduced legislation calling for a modification of the Constitution, particularly reducing the more than 50% vote requirement for the first round of presidential elections to avoid a run-off to 45%.
There have also been rumblings in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies about another modification that would extend their present terms until the year 2000, in order to coincide with the next presidential election.
After the presidential term of Joaquin Balaguer was reduced to two years in a constitutional reform provoked by alleged election fraud in 1994, many in and outside of the Congress have pondered the possibility of extending the term of both houses, in order to avoid the “trauma” of organizing and carrying out elections every two years.
There is also a movement to return the power of selecting the judges of the Supreme Court to the Senate, which lost that authority in the Constitutional reforms introduced in August of 1994.
The reduction in the number of votes required has been opposed by Congressmen from the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) and by some members of the PRSC and the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD). The fact that there is an attempt to return the important task of choosing the Supreme Court to the Senate and to extend the current legislative term from four to six years has caused skepticism among the news media and those members of Congress and members of the central government opposed to the reforms. Others oppose the fact that there is a movement to reform the Constitution at all, since it was done just two years ago and requires a special joint session of Congress, called a National Assembly. To hold a National Assembly, one third of the members of either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate must agree to such a gathering, and the proposed reforms must be approved by two thirds of the Congress.