The executive board of the leading opposition party, the PRM, met on Monday, 7 May 2018, and in a press conference afterwards said that the party had reached an agreement to back the inclusion of an article on simultaneous yet closed voting list primaries for all the political parties. The PRM board rejects the bill that passed in the Senate that calls for open primaries, using the Central Electoral Board (JCE) voting list, and that while simultaneous would require the JCE to rule on mechanisms that would not allow voters to cast their votes in different primaries on the same day.
In a first time the bill would have been discussed in the Chamber of Deputies, the quorum for the discussion was not reached. Andres Bautista, president of the PRM, said they would request that the bill pass first to a special commission prior to it moving for a vote by the members of the Chamber of Deputies. Bautista says that the party confirms the position it had announced on 24 April 2018.
The party appeared divided, after former President Hipolito Mejia went public instructing the PRM deputies loyal to him to vote for open primaries. The meeting held at the Casa Nacional del PRM was attended by 43 of the 49 deputies of the political party. Former President Hipolito Mejia did not attend, but the elect secretary general of the party, his daughter Carolina Mejia was present. Also attending was president-elect José Ignacio Paliza, and former presidential candidate Luis Abinader.
On Monday, 7 May 2018, former President Hipolito Mejia had met for an hour with Luis Abinader. Former President Hipólito Mejía refused to offer details yesterday, Monday 7 May 2018, of an hour long meeting he had with Luis Abinader and other party officials of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) at the residence of former senator Andrés Bautista.
Seven deputies who support Hipólito Mejía did not attend the session at the Chamber of Deputies last Wednesday, 2 May 2018, when the Political Parties Bill with the clause for open primaries was debated. It was suggested that absence of legislators during the session was a signal that they were opposed to the official position of the PRM party that had rejected open primaries.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
El Caribe
8 May 2018
