Independent deputy Minou Tavarez Mirabal has denounced the supporters of the bid to change the 2010 Constitution to enable President Danilo Medina to run for President in the 2016 election for offering opposition deputies the elimination of the preferential vote and the restoration of closed voting lists in exchange for their support for the re-election article, as reported in Diario Libre. The incumbent legislators would then be the first on the voters’ lists.
The preferential vote enables voters to vote separately for candidates from different parties.
PLD senator for San Cristobal, Tommy Galan, accused the PRD president, Miguel Vargas Maldonado of supporting the motion to eliminate the preferential vote. He said that in the light of the progress made by Luis Abinader of the PRM, Vargas Maldonado’s supporters in Congress are in a difficult situation.
PRM spokesman Nelson Arroyo said that they support changing the Constitution to reinstate consecutive re-election, but that this should be done after the 2016 election and through the mechanism used before.
Nevertheless, PRD spokesman Ruddy Gonzalez said that his party maintains its opposition to allowing President Danilo Medina to run for President in the 2016 election.
At present, voters can choose their deputy, but the party represented then becomes a vote for the senator of the same party. The electoral law also allows voters to vote separately for mayor, regardless of their choice for President or legislator.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/12/06/i414078_ley-157-sobre-voto-preferencial.html
http://www.noticiassin.com/2015/05/advierten-sobre-cambios-a-proyecto-ley-de-partidos-para-pasar-reforma-constitucional/