Hoy newspaper reports Senator Dario Gomez (PRD-Santiago Rodriguez), who leads a movement of legislators seeking constitutional reform, says he supports the idea of a president being re-elected for a second consecutive term. This was outlawed in the 1994 Constitutional Reform. He says re-election would permit President Hipolito Mejia to run for a second term and would be beneficial because the President would then be more concerned with doing a better job. “In addition he would not have the problem he now has, with 13 of his cabinet officers campaigning to be the presidential candidate in 2004 and neglecting their work in government,” explained Gomez. He also said that senators and deputies will likely extend their terms to two more years in the proposed constitutional reform bill to be submitted any day now. “I sustain that that decision could only be stopped by President Hipolito Mejia and former Presidents Joaquin Balaguer and Leonel Fernandez at a discussion table.”
