With the presence of 21 senators and 81 deputies at the 27 February 2018 military parade commemorating the 174th anniversary of the proclamation of Dominican independence from Haiti has some political analysts interpreting this action as the beginning of a movement for the reelection of President Danilo Medina.
It was Roberto Rodriguez Marchena, the presidential communications director and government spokesman during a television interview who remarked about the number of legislators attending the parade in order to be next to President Medina.
All along the entire parade route all the way to the National Congress, there were Medina supporters carrying placards calling for the President to seek four more years. Also along the Malecón (the George Washington Ave.) and around independence Park signs calling for “4 more years” and “You have done well, the people rule” were visible.
The government spokesman insisted that they were not carrying out a reelection campaign and that the government was concentrating on governing. Rodriguez Marchena said that the President’s Independence Day speech dealt with reality.
Former President Hipólito Mejía also says read re-election in Medina’s state of the nation address and recent actions. He said his political nose tells him that President Medina is getting ready to seek reelection and observed that “God help us and keep us clear of these actions of the President”. Mejía observed that Medina will again need to amend the Constitution and doubted this would happen, but then he recognized that in this country “anything is possible,” he told Channel 11 El Día TV show hosts Huchi Lora and Amelia Deschamps.
Mejía, who amended the Constitution in 2002 so he could seek reelection in 2004, again said he was wrong to do so, having admitted his mistake publicly on several occasions.
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El Nacional
El Nacional
1 March 2018
