President Hipolito Mejia has sent a bill to the Senate that asks Congress to modify the Constitution to include the possibility of calling referendums and to create a body to be known as the National Constitutional Assembly. This body would be entrusted with further modifications to the Constitution after the May 2002 congressional election. The members of the body would be chosen in that election. President Mejia also sent to the Senate the pact for constitutional reform signed yesterday by the three leading political parties. This pact calls for the elimination of closed electoral stations which required voters separated by sexes to remain cloistered for about four hours awaiting voting time. Other agreements in the pact call for election by popular vote instead of by congress of the Dominican representative to the Central American Parliament; and the stipulation that a candidate could become President of the Republic if he obtains 45% of the votes instead of 50% as at present. Also agreed on was a stipulation that a candidate could win in the first round with 40% if the percentage difference between him and the second place candidate was 10 points. The political pact opposes an extension of congressmen’s terms. Reportedly, President Mejia has negotiated allowing PRD deputies and senators to run for re-election, which is banned by PRD by-laws, in exchange for an agreement not to reform the constitution to prolongue their terms two more years. Flavio Dario Espinal, writing in El Caribe, explains that the political maneuver could avoid an institutional crisis as the extension, while legal, has been met with nationwide opposition. Congress now needs to decide whether or not to accept the recommendations.
