The Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) is the only of the three leading political parties that supports a government investment of RD$750 million for the organization of their primary elections. The Central Electoral Board (JCE) has requested that the chapter be included in the 2005 National Budget. According to a report in Hoy newspaper today, of the three parties only the PRD’s delegate to the JCE, Dario de Jesus, has expressed support for such funding, a concept that was made legal after the PRD-majority Congress, with the vote of the PRSC deputies, upheld an amendment to the electoral law. De Jesus told Hoy that it is a worthwhile investment in democracy.
Federico Antun Batlle, president of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) says that any political party that cannot pay for its own primaries should not exist and mentioned that the last primary cost his party RD$12 million. Antun Battle has stated that the funding request is an insult to Dominican society at a time when the country is undergoing an extensive economic crisis.
Danilo Diaz, the spokesman for the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), called the request for funding an outrageous absurdity and questioned how the JCE could intend to spent such a monstrous amount of money on the primaries while the country is in such dire economic straits.
Diaz and Antun concur that the primary law violates the Constitution and the right of the political parties to organize their own internal elections. “One cannot solve the problems of any party through legislation. The country does not deserve it and neither do the political parties need these efforts, much less an investment of this nature,” stated Diaz. The PLD representative said that nothing could justify such an expense and that, instead of contributing to the electoral process, the overabundance of funding and JCE interference would create chaos.