After seven months of delaying the date, the ruling PLD party leadership has finally announced that its Political Committee will be meeting at the PLD Presidential House on Av. Independencia in Santo Domingo this Thursday, 26 March 2015. The last time the influential Political Committee met was on 1 September 2014, as reported in Diario Libre.
Pre-candidate Francisco Javier Garcia said that maintaining party unity was a priority. Pre-candidates and other party members have called for the two leading figures, President Danilo Medina and former President Leonel Fernandez to meet now that the May 2016 election is barely 14 months away. Close aides of President Danilo Medina want him to seek re-election. However, for this to happen, the votes of former President Leonel Fernandez’s supporters are needed. The current Constitution, changed in 2010 during the Fernandez administration, bans consecutive re-election. This means that while Fernandez can run for President, Medina cannot do so without a change in the Constitution. The ruling PLD has enough votes in Congress to make the change. Earlier this month, Fernandez announced his aspirations to return to power in 2016.
Diario Libre reports that Art. 43 of the PLD by-laws establishes that the party primaries will be directed by a National Electoral Commission made up of a coordinator chosen by the Political Committee among its members, the heads of the organization and electoral affairs secretariats and four members of the Central Committee elected by that body.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2015/03/23/i1067171_pld-convoca-para-prximo-jueves-reunin-comit-poltico.html