The bill sent to the Senate is for the creation of a framework for the referendum, and not to prepare the way for the re-election of President Danilo Medina, says JCE president Roberto Rosario and Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez, as reported in Listin Diario. The 2010 Constitution eliminated consecutive re-election, meaning that President Danilo Medina cannot run for re-election after the end of his current term. At present President Medina has the highest popularity rate of any President into his second year of government.
Pared Perez said that the Constitution is specific in defining where the referendum can be used. The Constitution, in its Art. 210 on the Referendum rules that they cannot involve the continuation of an elected official. He went on to say the purpose of the bill is to create the law that will govern the use of the referendum. He mentioned that it could be used to ask Dominicans whether Loma Miranda should be designated a national park.
Meanwhile, PLD presidential pre-candidate Francisco Javier Garcia remarked that anyone speculating that Medina would seek re-election does not know him well. He said that Medina is a man of his word and recalled that Medina resigned from the Ministry of the Presidency when he opposed the re-election of President Fernandez into the 2008 election.
Sections on the referendum in the 2010 Constitution read as follows (Guzman Ariza English version):
Section III on the Direct Participation in Local Government establishes:
Art. 203: “Referendum, Plebiscites and Municipal Initiative. To strengthen democracy and local governance, the Organic Law on Local Government shall establish the scope, requirements and conditions for exercising the referendum, plebiscite and the municipal initiative at the local level.”
Art. 210. Referendum. Expression of the public will by referendum shall be governed by a law that shall determine all matters concerning its implementation, subject to the following conditions:
1) Referendums shall not involve the continuation or recalls of any elected or appointed official;
2) Referendums shall require congressional approval, by a vote of two thirds of the members present in each house.
Art. 272. Referendum for Approval. If the reform is related to fundamental rights, guarantees and duties, territorial or municipal organization, nationality, citizenship or immigration, the monetary system, or the amendment procedures established under the Constitution, approval of the reform shall require ratification by a majority of citizens with the right to vote, through a referendum for approval called by the Central Electoral Board after the National Assembly has voted and approved the reform.
Paragraph I. The Central Electoral Board shall submit the amendments to a referendum within sixty days after formal receipt.
Paragraph II. The adoption of the amendments to the Constitution by referendum requires approval by a majority of the votes cast and by a number of voters exceeding 30% of registered voters, counting only those voters who voted YES or No.
Paragraph III. If the referendum is approved, the National Assembly for Revision of the Constitution shall proclaim and officially publish the amended Constitution in full with the amended text.
www.listindiario.com.do/la-republica/2013/12/12/303304/Advierten-el-referendo-no-es-para-la-reeleccion
La reelección a debate de nuevo por las aspiraciones en el PLD