Civic organizations, opposition parties and opinion makers went public on Wednesday, 24 April 2019 to protest anti-democratic actions taken by the Medina administration in different branches of government. The pace of the measures has picked up as the nation awaits for President Danilo Medina to announce whether he will push forward an amendment to the 2015 Constitution to enable him to run for a third consecutive term.
A group of 36 civic organizations expressed their concern at “the avalanche of abuses of power” that are being committed, and that is attributed to the government and high-ranking officers of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). The organizations say that as the 2020 general election gets closer, authoritarian excesses have multiplied and this is causing much damage to Dominican democracy. The organizations distributed a document summarizing the recent abuses.
The protest coincides with the recent publication of the United Nations Development Programme report on the Quality of Democracy in the Dominican Republic. The report looks into the political rights and electoral system, fundamental rights, rule of law, quality of government, quality of life, social and economic equity, and democratic political culture. In its conclusions, the report alerts there is great institutional weakness and stagnation of institutional reforms. It is critical of the checks and balances of the judicial and legislative branches with regards to the executive branch. The report highlights the low regional score of the country in regards to the independence of the judiciary, struggle against corruption and accountability of government officers. It also highlights the country is among the 40 most unsafe countries in the world.
The report also focuses on what it describes as the wide margin of discretion exercised by the Executive Branch that negatively affects the rule of law in the country. This predominance of the Executive Branch is felt in the declining trust in institutions such as the Judicial Branch, Legislative Branch and the National Police.
The same report, nevertheless, highlights the high level of participation of Dominican citizens in organized civic organizations, ranking third among 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Writing in Diario Libre, José Luis Taveras says the UNDP Quality of Democracy Report reveals “a true crisis in the political and social system” in the Dominican Republic. Taveras says the report looks into how democracy improved in the second half of the 90s to then enter into a period of decline as of 2010. He looks into how in the past two months actions to intimidate citizens have escalated. He mentions the Attorney General Office tapping the phones of judges and politicians, the president of the Senate calling for the interpellation of electoral judges for exercising their roles; a blatant campaign to promote reelection that is banned in the Constitution; the abusive exercise of authority to intimidate or annual dissidence.
Taveras concludes: “The idea behind these actions is to corner a fearful society. It looks like the government has achieved this and I fear for what may come. According to the UNDP Report, we are 20th of 23 countries in press censorship in 2017. A weak democracy with a strong government is disturbing. Today we ask if we have or not a dictator, tomorrow it will be if we can call ourselves a nation or not. Reelection or an agenda for impunity (for the effects, the same thing) cannot be above the future. Don’t push so hard. Watch out!”
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25 April 2019