Judge Nelson Gomez, the head of the Administrative Chamber of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), spoke out yesterday in favor of unifying the presidential and congressional elections. Gomez also spoke out against the continued existence of the miniscule political parties that survive by forming alliances with one of the three major parties. As reported by Loyda Pena in Hoy, Gomez said he would propose the need to devise a proposal to be sent to Congress. Gomez felt the country would save a lot of money by eliminating one of these electoral processes. At present time, elections are being carried out every two years. In 2002, elections were held for municipal and congressional positions. A new congressional and municipal election is scheduled for 2006. The judge would prefer that those named to office in the 2006 election be given two-year terms, instead of four, and by so doing the 2008 elections for both the congress and the presidency would be held in tandem.
As far as the minority parties are concerned, Gomez said that some sort of solution would be needed for those parties that don?t obtain even 2% of the popular vote. Currently, there are 24 political parties recognized by the JCE. For the recently held presidential elections, the JCE distributed RD$412.8 million among the parties.