Following a plenary session of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), the members unanimously decided that the drag vote of deputies will not apply for the election of senators in 26 provinces in the February 2020 election. In these provinces there will be four ballots in use, one for each level of election (presidential, senators, deputies and municipal). The provision, nevertheless, will not apply to the larger voting population centers, those of the National District, Province of Santo Domingo, La Vega, Puerto Plata, San Cristóbal and Santiago. The JCE was acting on a request made by 17 political parties regarding new provisions in Art. 92 of the Electoral Regime Law 15-19 that call for separating the election levels.
The plenary of the JCE announced that it decided that, exceptionally and for the purposes of “complying with the provisions of Paragraph IV of Article 104 of Law No. 15-19, only in the National District and those provinces that are divided into electoral districts for the election of deputies and deputies by territorial constituency, all votes obtained by the party in the province will be computed for the election of the candidates for senators.
The six demarcations that are excluded concentrate 58.8% of the voters for the elections of 2020 or 4,371,033 eligible voters. The province of Santo Domingo has the highest number of voters, with 1,657,849 registered, equivalent to 22.3% of the electoral roll, which had 7,422,627 registered as of February 2019. The National District is the second most populated demarcation with 854,971 voters equivalent to 11.5%, followed by Santiago with 636,922 registered for a percentage of 11.2%. San Cristóbal is the fourth province with the highest number of voters and has 430,927 for 5.8%, followed by La Vega, 332,068 voters for 4.5%, and Puerto Plata with 258,296 registered.
The 26 provinces where four (4) ballots will now be used, one for each level of election, are Bahoruco, Dajabón, El Seibo, Elías Piña, Hato Mayor, Hermanas Mirabal, Independencia, Montecristi, Pedernales, Samaná, San José de Ocoa, Santiago Rodríguez, Barahona, María Trinidad Sánchez, Monseñor Nouel, Monte Plata, Peravia, Sánchez Ramírez, Valverde, Azua, Espaillat, La Romana, San Juan de la Maguana, Duarte, La Altagracia and San Pedro de Macorís. In these provinces, voters will be able to directly vote for the senators and the deputies of their preference.
Article 92 of the Organic Law of Electoral Regime No.15-19 states: “The following classification is established for the elections: (…) 5. Level of Elections. An election level shall be defined as one that contains indivisible or not fractionable candidacies in themselves. Presidential Level. This refers to the joint election of the President and Vice President of the Republic. 7. Senatorial Level. Refers to the election of senators. 8. Deputation level. It refers to the joint election of deputies by territorial demarcation, national deputies by the accumulation of votes and deputies representing the Dominican community abroad. 9. Municipal level. It refers to the joint election of mayors, councilmen and their respective alternates, as well as the directors, deputy directors and members of the municipal districts.
Article 104, paragraph IV, contained in Title X, on electoral districts, provides as follows: “Exceptions to this provision are senatorial candidates, to whom all the votes obtained by the party in the province shall be computed; in the case of mayors, the votes obtained in the entire municipality; and with respect to directors of municipal districts, those that have been obtained in the corresponding municipal district.
The plenary session of the JCE was presided over by judge Julio César Castaños Guzmán, with the participation of members Roberto Saladín Selin, Carmen Imbert Brugal, Rosario Graciano de los Santos and Henry Mejía Oviedo, assisted by the Secretary General of the JCE, Dr. Ramón Hilario.
The leading opposition party, Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) announced it would submit to the Constitutional Court on 15 May 2019 a motion against the decision that keeps the drag vote in the National District and five provinces. José Ignacio Paliza, the president of the PRM, understands that the measure creates first and second class senators and citizens.
Diario Libre reports that Federico Antún Batlle, spokesman for the PRSC, called the resolution unacceptable. “The Constitution is the same for all,” he said. Minority party leaders, Guillermo Moreno of Alianza País; Minou Tavarez of Opción Democrática; Vinicio Castillo Semán of the Fuerza Nacional Progresista (FNP) also rejected the decision by the JCE.
Read more in Spanish:
JCE
El Caribe
Z101
Diario Libre
El Dia
8 May 2019