The political dialogue between the three principal political parties – the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Reformist-Social Christian Party (PRSC) – will resume today at the National Palace at 6 pm. This will be the third dialogue meeting – the first, on Wednesday, March 3rd, agreed on the agenda, and the second, Friday, March 5th, was the first substantive session. Today’s session is expected to return to two key issues discussed last Friday, namely the election of the Secretary-General (SG) of the Dominican Municipal League (LMD) and the composition of the Central Election Board (JCE). There are conflicting signals about whether the three parties believe any progress can be made in this dialogue, many of them coming from the PRSC. Earlier this week it was revealed that PRSC leaders were studying alternatives to the dialogue because they were not satisfied with its direction. Then PRSC leaders suggested that they be more receptive to a PRD suggestion on the LMD if the PRD was more flexible about the JCE. In a nutshell, the PRSC suggests that it might agree to having the LMD governed by a group of eminent persons (instead of ex-PRSC Senator Amable Aristy Castro) until the courts decide who is the legal LMD SG, but only if the PRSC gets the resignation of all or some of the current JCE (something the PRD has adamantly and repeatedly refused to agree to).
