As the days pass by and President Danilo Medina has not yet stated whether or not he will seek reelection in the 2020 general elections, speculation mounts. He has a July 2019 deadline to make the announcement.
This week the former president of the Chamber of Deputies Lucia Medina revved government employees to campaign for the reelection of her brother and defend their jobs. Lucia Medina seeks to be elected senator for their province of San Juan de la Maguana.
Ruling party pre-candidate Carlos Amarante Baret urged former President Leonel Fernandez to desist from seeking a fourth term in office. Fernandez was President from 1996-2000, 2004-2008 and 2012 to 2016. Polls show Fernández has the highest popularity among eligible PLD pre-candidates.
A Fernandez supporter, former president of the Chamber of Deputies Ruben Maldonado responded to Amarante saying that it is President Danilo Medina who should not be considering running in order to comply with the mandate of the Constitution. Maldonado argued that Medina’s aspirations to a third term are the main threat to unity within the ruling party.
Medina’s re-election is banned by the 2015 Constitution that had been passed to enable him to seek reelection in 2016. Yet, the reality is that Medina needs only the votes of a majority of PLD party members to reform the Constitution to make his reelection legal. In 2016, he secured the votes of the opposition party, the PRD. PLD deputy Elpidio Báez told El Caribe on 20 March 2019 that the party has the votes to pass the needed amendment to the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Amarante supports those who say that neither Medina nor Fernandez should be the ruling party candidate, that it is time for another to run for the party. Aside from Medina and Fernandez, the third most popular candidate is Vice President Margarita Cedeño. Cedeño is the wife of Fernández and has said the time is right for a woman President. But there is a long list of government and former PLD government officers who are campaigning to be on the PLD ticket for President.
The president of Alianza País, Guillermo Moreno said that the re-election is a “creature born of the ambition of Danilo Medina who has come to believe he is indispensable.” In a press release, Moreno said that the audio by deputy Lucia Medina confirms the full throttle to the reelection push. “They use state money, they take loans abroad to finance the reelection, they use the ministries to promote it and pressure public employees and those who receive social assistance from the state to support it,” he wrote. “We are in the political and moral obligation to mobilize all national awareness and citizen commitment against this new attack against democracy. If we do not act today to stop reelection, it is certain that tomorrow we will cry tears of blood,” he emphasized.
Luis Abinader, a leading pre-candidate for the PRM opposition party, has said the party will vote as a block against the change of the reelection ban in the Constitution.
Campos de Moya, a high-ranking executive of the Vicini family business group, the largest business conglomerate in the country, made a stir when he announced that personally, he backs the reelection of President Danilo Medina because Medina has been good for business. “The business community is very happy because there are a series of measures that are being contemplated to facilitate business, to facilitate exports, to make innovation, to promote new business in the Dominican Republic,” said De Moya.
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Diario Libre
Z101
Altagracia Salazar
El Caribe
El Dia
Diario Libre
21 March 2019