The Political Parties Bill recently was sent to a special commission at the Chamber of Deputies. The deputies are awaiting the recommendations of the commission. The commission has all of this month to render a report.
The snag in the bill is about whether or not to instate open primaries as the over the board mechanism for political parties to choose their presidential candidates. The two leaders of the PLD – President Danilo Medina and former President Leonel Fernandez – differ on the issue.
The Senate, where the followers of President Medina are majority, earlier had passed the bill with the open primaries clauses and ordered the Central Electoral Board (JCE) organize these.
From the Senate, the bill passed to the Chamber of Deputies. But in the Chamber of Deputies neither those in favor of open primaries or those against have enough votes to reach the 2/3 of the quorum needed for the bill to pass or be rejected. This has been demonstrated by the discussions being halted for the lack of quorum.
Recognizing the stalemate, on Wednesday, 16 May 2018, the legal advisor to the President, Flavio Dario Espinal read to the public the letter President Danilo Medina has sent to the National Congress proposing the discussions start from scratch again and that the Political Parties Bill be discussed by a bicameral (Senate and Chamber of Deputies) commission. The bad news is that the bicameral discussions regarding the same bill have been happening for around 20 years with no results.
The Wednesday, 16 May 2018 letter is addressed to the president of the Senate, Reinaldo Pared and the president of the Chamber of Deputies Ruben Maldonado. In the letter, Medina acknowledges the open primaries clause has impeded the passing of the bill. He defends the open primaries saying they are more transparent and participative than the present model where political parties use their own voting lists instead of the voting list of the Central Electoral Board. He said that inside the political parties there are not the trustworthy mechanisms that are needed to mediate the internal election conflicts. It is implied that he trusts the JCE would serve this purpose.
President Medina then acknowledges that while those who oppose the open primaries do not have enough votes to impose their view, they do have enough votes or power to impede its passing.
Detractors say the presidential proposal is contradictory with the procedures that establish that the bill be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies. If it is amended, it would return to the Senate for review.
Read more in Spanish:
Presidencia
17 May 2018
