The directors of the ruling PLD and the leading opposition party PRM have agreed that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) be in charge of organizing the political primaries to choose the presidential candidates of the political parties in the Dominican Republic for the 2020 general election. This is different from the traditional supervisory role of past elections. The editorialist forecasts this would lead to the discredit of the JCE and to electoral chaos.
The new measure would be included in the Political Parties Bill that is being discussed in the Chamber of Deputies. There is pressure to pass the bill in this legislature that ends in August 2018, so the regulations can be applied to the preparations for the 2020 general elections. The political party and electoral discussions have been going on for over 20 years in Congress. The bill needs two thirds of the vote to pass, but if the PRM and the PLD agree, it will be a given.
Both the PLD and the PRM are divided among their party leaders and who should be the presidential candidate. President Danilo Medina and Leonel Fernández have split the PLD, and Luis Abinader and Hipólito Mejía, the PRM. The new backing to passing the primaries organization to the JCE is equal to passing the hot potato on and hoping for the best.
An editorial in El Día raises red flags and alerts to the trouble ahead. The editorial observes that political parties have recognized their incapacity to organize the primaries themselves. “More than striving to become capable, the political parties have now decided to drag everyone into chaos,” writes the editorialist.
It says the JCE is being asked to do the absurd and impossible that is to organize simultaneous primaries for all the political parties. The Political Parties Bill would also allow the political parties to choose the modality. The editorialist says that taxpayers will then have to pay for the broken dishes.
“You hear all the time these politicians saying that democracy is costly and we say our democracy costs too much and often smells bad. Those parties, pro-government and opposition, have no right to lead us into chaos,” concludes the editorialist.
The measure is opposed by the minority political parties. Guillermo Moreno (Alianza Pais), Pelegrin Castillo (Fuerza Nacional Progresista) and Max Puig (Partido Alianza por la Democracia) favor political parties being in charge of their own primaries and alerted to the high cost of passing this task onto the JCE.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
El Dia
18 July 2018
