The Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) spoke out on 7 November 2017 regarding discussions about the amending of the 2015 Constitution to allow for President Danilo Medina to seek a third period in office and regarding instituting permanent re-election. The 2015 Constitution allows a one-time re-election of a president.
Servio Tulio Castaños of Finjus told reporters that the Dominican Constitution is clear regarding the issue of the possibility or not of presidential reelection based on the current regulations, so that it is not necessary for Dominican society to undergo at this time a discussion regarding this issue. Castaños said: “Even though different sectors have suggested that the issue be discussed in broad terms, we feel that such a discussion might generate unnecessary confusion regarding an aspect that is sufficiently established in the text of the Constitution.”
With regard to the constitutional text, he said that the Constitution, in article 124, establishes that “The President of the Republic can opt for a second consecutive constitutional term and may never again stand for the same office or that of the vice presidency of the Republic.”
Castaños went on to say that the constitutional text has been very specific regarding the impossibility of a President of the Republic opting for a third term, referring to the man currently in office, and not a past president.
Castaños said that the discussion about re-election is untimely. He said it does not contribute to the strengthening of a law-abiding democracy. He said the 2015 Constitution is clear in where it states that the President is elected for a maximum of two four-year terms.
Meanwhile, judges of the Constitutional Court called for political parties to respect the Constitution to avoid that it be amended every time presidential elections come along. Judges Jottin Cury and Wilson Gómez Ramírez proposed a pact between political parties so that there be clear rules of the game and these not be constantly changed.
Likewise, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ruben Maldonado, openly rejected the changing of the 2015 Constitution again to accommodate a second re-election of President Danilo Medina. Maldonado said that in the Dominican Republic there are not the conditions for an amendment to the constitution to enable Medina to be the PLD presidential candidate in 2020.
In the Dominican Republic the Constitution has been modified on several occasions to accommodate the re-election aspirations of Dominican Presidents. In recent years, this has occurred with President Hipólito Mejia when he sought to run again in the 2004 election and with President Danilo Medina when he sought to run again in the 2016 election. While the Constitution would have to be changed again for Medina to run, a previous change allows for former President Leonel Fernandez to again be the PLD candidate in 2020.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Nacional
7 Dias
Noticias SIN
El Nacional
8 November 2017
