Historian, Central Banker and former Dominican ambassador to Washington, D.C. Bernardo Vega is advocating for President Danilo Medina to break local politicians’ reticence towards participating in political debates in election years.
Bernardo Vega says the DR and Haiti are the only two Latin American countries where the presidential candidates refuse to debate. He recalls that former Presidents Joaquin Balaguer, Leonel Fernandez, Hipolito Mejia all refused to debate their opponents.
“Will the spell be broken and we can have debates before May between Medina, Abinader and the others, or will we remain as only country in the region that votes without debates and only based on advertising spots and campaign convoys?” he asks.
He says that the best-positioned candidate is President Medina, but if the traditional wisdom is that the best candidate does not debate, he speculates that Medina will also reject the debate, especially when his refusal to address the issues is a key topic in the electoral criticism of his government, observes Vega.
“It looks like we may have to wait until 2020,” he concludes.