The bicameral commission that is studying the Political Parties Bill announced they will not proceed before hearing from the Political Committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), as reported in Diario Libre. The ruling PLD party has more than enough votes to push through Congress whatever its Political Committee decides. Moreover, the faction within the party that represents President Danilo Medina followers enjoys a majority in both legislative chambers.
The impasse of the Political Parties Bill is focused on the PLD faction that wants to impose open primaries for the political parties. This had been rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice that found it in violation with the Constitution in 2005. The Central Electoral Board has also rejected the open primaries on grounds of its high cost.
President of the PLD, former President Leonel Fernandez, is also against the open primaries. Likewise, Luis Abinader, former presidential candidate for the largest opposition party, the PRM opposes the open primaries saying the high cost of the open primaries scheme discriminates against the smaller political parties. Former President Hipólito Mejía, of a contending faction in the PRM, and Foreign Relations Minister Miguel Vargas of the PRD back the Medina scheme for open primaries.
Nevertheless, the Political Committee of the PLD has decided to handpick five lawyers to give their opinion on the constitutional validity of the open primaries mechanism. Legislators in the Dominican Republic are not known for their independence of criteria, and most often have voted on key bills following party leader instructions.
The Political Parties Bill has been in Congress for more than 20 years without a decision because each time Congress has tried to accommodate the bill to those in power without reaching a consensus with those out of power.
The bicameral commission said it would begin to study the Electoral Regime Bill. Electoral experts have said the first of the two bills that should be approved is the Electoral Regime Bill.
Political analyst Rosario Espinal says the differences on the kind of primaries all come down to what group controls the organization secretariat of the party, what group has the most money and which pre-candidate is more popular outside of the party. She explains that the politician that controls the organization secretariat will prefer the closed primaries because he will register more of his followers; the one with more cash will prefer the open primaries, and the most popular will prefer the open primaries.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Noticias SIN
16 October 2017
