President Danilo Medina is currently serving his second term as President of the Dominican Republic. For more than a year, there has been speculation that he could well run (and win) a third consecutive term.
The 2015 Constitution, nevertheless prohibits Medina from running in the 2020 general election. However, changing the Constitution is not very difficult in the DR, especially if you control the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate with nearly overwhelming majorities. The Medina administration is said to control the Judicial Branch. President Medina recently presided over an overhaul of the Supreme Court of Justice, with the National Council of the Magistracy naming a former high-ranking PLD party director to preside the Supreme Court of Justice.
Diario Libre published a series of indicators capturing grounds for the recent speculation. First, Reinaldo Pared Pérez, the Senate president, revealed that the President had told him that he had still not decided to run or not. Pared Pérez had held several meetings with Medina and former President Leonel Fernandez, who also wants to be the candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). Fernandez and his followers are wholly opposed to any change in the Constitution that would enable Medina to run once again.
Second, Diario Libre points out that the Administrative Minister of the Presidency, José Ramón Peralta had revealed last week the results of several surveys that showed voters approve of the Medina government. There were also many statements by Medina’s supporters. These have gone so far to say that if the votes were not there in the first instance, they would be “obtained” in short order. This is interpreted as a veiled reference to the purchase of the votes needed to change the Constitution.
Third, Diario Libre focuses on the recent meetings between the nation’s industrial and economic leadership and the echelons of the Dominican Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church. The A-list invitees to the Presidential Palace “cordially discussed” different issues pending on the Dominican political scene. There were scant reports beyond photo-op pictures in the local newspapers.
Previously, the bishops had issued a pastoral letter warning that the country was on the road to a dictatorship. However, the President told reporters after the meeting that they talked about the tourism industry that had taken several significant hits in the international media due to the deaths of US citizens when vacationing at eastern resorts.
The media is also focusing on the parading of invitees from the world of entertainment, which included influencers with monikers such as “Alofoke”, who , incidentally, was deported from the United States and who has a large following among young Dominicans on various media outlets and who wants to run for the Chamber of Deputies. This is seen as an attempt by the President to gain access to the nation’s youth.
A fourth point is the daily insistence on reelection by Medina’s closest advisors and cabinet members, such as Peralta himself, Public Works Minister Gonzalo Castillo, and Public Administration Minister Ramon Ventura Camejo, who are in daily contact with the President.
Finally, there are the constant statements by several members of the legislature, who seem to defy public opinion in their remarks whereby votes to amend the Constitution would be obtained “by any means possible.”
One of the most outrageous statements to come out on national television was the one by Interior & Police Minister Ramon “Monchi” Fadul, who said he does not want to change the Constitution. Fadul says that the President “only wants to remove a paragraph.” In 2015, to get former President Leonel Fernandez to agree to his seeking reelection, a transitory clause was included in the 2015 Constitution that specifically bans Medina from seeking a third term.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
8 July 2019