2004News

Are the signatures needed or not?

There is no specific mention of it in the Electoral Law, but for some time now it has been popular belief that official proclamation for party candidates were registered by the president and the secretary of the political party. Henry Mejia of the Hatuey Decamps faction of the PRD disputes public statements made by Judge Ramon Hernandez of the JCE’s Chamber of Disputes, who recently said that the signatures of the party president and secretary are not necessary to register the eventual candidacy of the PPH faction of the PRD, namely President Hipolito Mejia. Mejia won the PRD primary, held on 18 January, after a previous convention that was won by Hatuey Decamps was annulled by the JCE. Mejia said that the judge should let the PRD resolve its internal problems without interference. “The JCE is there to administer the process,” he told CDN news network and explained that there is a resolution from the 16th Convention that took place at the Club San Carlos in the presence of the late PRD leader, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, that established that for candidacies to be valid they require the signatures of the president of the party and the secretary general, the two legal forces within the party structure. CDN mentions that Peggy Cabral, another PRD leader, has been asserting that the registration of the PRD candidacy should be processed by the president and secretary general of the party. Both Hatuey Decamps and Rafael (Fello) Subervi Bonilla oppose the movement to make Mejia the party’s official candidate.