The president of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), José Ignacio Paliza, says the party will meet next week to discuss whether to vote in favor of a constitutional amendment that would enable President Danilo Medina to run again for President in 2024. The 2015 Constitution outlaws Medina from running for President again. If the National Assembly is convened to discuss constitutional reform, legislators by law cannot be limited in the reforms that are discussed. While not on the list for the discussion now, a reduction of the 50%+1 vote requirement could be approved. Medina was not registered as a pre-candidate, so he no longer can be included in the 6 October primary nor be a candidate in the 2020 general election.
As reported, the largest opposition party will be discussing voting for the unification of the municipal elections scheduled for 16 February 2020 with the presidential and congressional elections on 17 May 2020. The proposal has the backing of former President Hipólito Mejía, a PRM pre-candidate.
“We will see this issue in the next few days. The party cannot remain isolated from issues like that,” said Paliza, the PRM senator from Puerto Plata.
This proposal, authored by the president of the Christian Social Reformist Party (PRSC), Federico Antún Batlle, has met with both support and rejection among the different sectors of Dominican society.
“The people are tired, very tired, let’s not invent any more,” the executive vice president of the Institutionality and Justice Foundation (Finjus), Servio Tulio Castaños Guzmán has said about the PRSC president’s proposal.
His brother, the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Julio César Castaños Guzmán, considers that “it would not be prudent to modify the Constitution at this time, it is time for the institutions to be strengthened, we should not be distracted.”
The PRSC and Hipólito Mejía are openly campaigning for instating the US model of two periods of four years and never again. But this would be after President Danilo Medina is allowed to run for another eight years, as of 2024.
Paliza spoke when interviewed on Hoy Mismo on Color Visión, channel 9.
He denied talks whereby the PRM would ally with the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) for the next presidential elections. However, Paliza said that the leaders of both parties have always promoted a rapprochement.
The PRM was born after differences between the president of the PRD, Miguel Vargas Maldonado, and leading PRM politicians, Luis Abinader and Hipólito Mejía. “There have always been people on both sides who want to see the parties unite in that sense,” Paliza said.
He explained the PRM’s main objective is to reach “a great alliance with all the organizations that want to take the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) out of power.
“We are open to agreements, to conversations in search of an understanding,” he said.
Paliza considered essential that the Central Electoral Board monitor the use of state resources in the current electoral campaign. He said the PRM is gathering evidence to demonstrate the use of public money by PLD presidential pre-candidates.
Paliza remarked that the party was ready for the 6 October primary. He said there is harmony between the presidential pre-candidates, Luis Abinader and former President Hipólito Mejía, and as a result. “The party will be the winner,” he stated.
An estimated 1.3 million party members are registered to vote. During the primary, the party will choose around 4,000 candidates to elective posts in the municipal, congressional and presidential elections of 2020.
The constitutional amendment has the full support of President Danilo Medina’s followers in Congress. The spokesman for the ruling PLD Gustavo Sánchez says the constitutional amendment project is in the works, but there is no rush. He said the right moment has to be found and that there is no difference from doing it today or tomorrow.
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El Nacional
Nuria
Hoy
5 September 2019