The Listin Diario reports that despite Article 73 of the DR’s electoral law, which establishes a period of five days for the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to issue an opinion in favor or against the registration of any political party’s presidential candidate, the JCE has yet to set a date for the review of the candidacies of Hipolito Mejia (PRD) and Eduardo Estrella (PRSC) that were submitted last Friday. Earlier, the Partido Revolucionario Independiente (PRI) had registered the candidacy of Trajano Santana and the PLD registered the candidacy of former President Leonel Fernandez on Tuesday, 3 February.
The president of the JCE, Luis Arias, said that he would speak with the judges to determine when a decision would be taken regarding the candidacies. Judge Rafael Diaz Vasquez, whom President Hipolito Mejia has described as his closest friend among the judges, said that there is no rush to rule on the registration of the candidacies.
But Judge Roberto Rosario (who represents the PLD in the JCE) said that the five-day period for the review must be respected, or a resolution issued varying the time allotted for the study.
The JCE last week recognized two new political parties – Por la Autentica Democracia (PAD) of journalist Raul Perez Pena (Bacho) and Movimiento Solidaridad Nacional (MSN) of Ramon Emilio Concepcion.