At the time of going to press the National Council of Magistrates (CNM), the important body of Congressmen, judges, and the President that will choose new Supreme Court judges, was scheduled to convene on Wednesday, 18 September. The CNM was created as part of the constitutional reforms passed in August 1994 for the selection of a Supreme Court independent of political party influence, as has been said in the past as it had been the Senate which has chosen the judges.
The CNM consists of the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, Amable Aristy Castro and Rafael Peguero Mendez, Senator Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Deputy Cesar Francisco Feliz y Feliz; the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Nestor Contin Aybar, and Judge Amadeo Julian, also of the Supreme Court; and President Leonel Fernandez.
Although many have called for the selection of the judges to be independent from partisan politics, some fear that the presence of only two parties ( Mr. Aristy Castro and Mr. Feliz y Feliz from the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano, together with Mr. Peguero Mendez and Mrs. Ortiz Bosch from the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano ) will concentrate the influence into the hands of those parties’ respective leaders. The PRSC and the PRD came to an agreement to divide the Congress and support each other for the opposition member from each house, resulting in their monopoly in the CNM. Only President Fernandez is a member of a different party, the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD).
Dr. Fernandez, while announcing the meeting of the CNM, also mentioned that France, Spain, the United States, and the Interamerican Development Bank have all offered technical and financial assistance for the “restructuring” of the Dominican justice system, which has been harshly criticized for its corruption in recent years. Commissions are being prepared to meet with representatives of the governments of the above-mentioned nations and the IDB.