The announcement by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) that it would pick up 85% of the RD$1.5 billion cost for the organization of primaries to choose candidates for the 2020 election has met with widespread opposition. This would mean taxpayers would need to pay for the JCE to organize the primaries even when in the recently passed Political Parties Law specifies that political parties choosing the method of primaries need to solely pay for these.
In making the announcement, the president of the JCE, Julio Guzmán Castaños stated that money cannot be an obstacle to peace and elections bring peace.
Opposition to the announcement is widespread. The National Business Council called for the JCE to comply with the Political Parties Law 33-18. Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero said Law 33-18 establishes that the cost of the primaries will be covered by the funding already allotted to the political parties in the National Budget. The Permanent Forum of Political Parties of the Dominican Republic (Fopppredom) shared the opinion of Guerrero. Fopppredom says it is not correct nor fair that the political parties choosing the modality of primaries be required to pay only RD$200 million and the government pick up RD$1.25 billion of the cost.
Participación Ciudadana, a leading civic watchdog organization, said the amount the JCE would cover regarding the primaries organization is greater than the transfers the central government allots to 122 city governments and seven ministries together (Women, Public Administration, Energy and Mines, Labor, Culture and Sports). PC called the announcement by the JCE a violation of the new Political Parties Law. It urged the government stick to the law. PC says that if the agreement is implemented the financing to political parties would be RD$2.75 billion, or 0.4% of GDP, instead of the 0.25% that the law authorizes. “And that is only for the parties, without counting the other expenses that the JCE will incur to maintain the excessively expensive Dominican democracy and the theft of public resources made by candidates for elective office.”
Former President Hipólito Mejía and Interior & Police Minister José Ramón Fadul backed the JCE decision.
Law 33-18 in its article 47 establishes: “The resources to organize primaries for the parties, groupings and political movements to elect the candidates to the different positions in the ordinary elections will be deducted, previous agreement with the political organizations, from the economic contribution that the state provides to the parties, independently of the contributions of the Central Electoral Board in nature and logistics “.
Political parties that announced primaries are the ruling PLD party, the PRD, Alianza País and Opción Democrática. Of the total RD$1.25 billion agreed upon by the JCE almost the totality will go to the PLD and its ally in the 2016 general election, the PRD.
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Participacion Ciudadana
MetroRD
MetroRD
Diario Libre
7 February 2019
