Former President Leonel Fernández announced he will seek the presidency for the Partido La Fuerza del Pueblo in the May 2020 election. In his speech on Sunday, 20 October 2019 in the evening, Fernández said he is leaving the party because the government has become spiteful and vengeful. “It is a government that harasses, that silences the voices that oppose it, that presses and that does not blush to run over,” said Fernandez.
Fernández is a three-term former President and at the time of his announcement was president of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). In the 6 October 2019 PLD primary, Fernandez lost to former Public Works Minister Gonzalo Castillo who had the backing of President Danilo Medina. Fernandez cited major fraud and widespread use of government resources to stick the Castillo candidacy. The civic watchdog movement, Participación Ciudadana reported that more than 30% of the vote was fraudulent.
On Sunday, 20 October 2019, the Partido de los Trabajadores Dominicanos approved changing their name to La Fuerza del Pueblo and presenting Leonel Fernandez as their presidential candidate.
The present electoral regime bans Fernández from running for another political party. Electoral experts say that the electoral laws have already been challenged successfully in the Constitutional Court and it is not unlikely another ruling could be obtained to favor Fernández running for the Presidency.
The Central Electoral Board reported 3 March 2020 is the deadline for presidential candidacies registration. Technically there is time for Fernández to become a third major contender for the 2020 presidential election, besides Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) candidate Luis Abinader and Gonzalo Castillo, named by the ruling Dominican Liberation Party as its presidential candidate.
The move to seek the candidacy for La Fuerza del Pueblo formalizes several months of major differences between those who back Fernández and those who back President Danilo Medina in the PLD. In the past, the differences had been harmonized. Not so this time.
The announcement made on Sunday evening, follows weeks of diatribes primarily communicated online on social networks.
In the Dominican Republic, an election is won by 50+1% of the vote. The largest segment of the vote is the independent vote, estimated at 42% of the vote.
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21 October 2019