After 6pm, does President Danilo Medina stop being President?” asked journalist Patricia Solano in her comment on La Cuestion radio talk show on the Central Electoral Board (JCE) decision that allows Medina administration officers to openly campaign. President Danilo Medina has been on the campaign trail backing the presidential candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Gonzalo Castillo. The JCE issued a resolution authorizing government officers to campaign “after their official working hours”.
Jose Ignacio Paliza, president of the leading opposition party, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) says the decision is “unfortunate.” He said the law in an outright manner orders government officers to not participate in political campaigning. He stressed the law does not talk about schedules.
In an interview on the talk show, Paliza presented the contradictions of the JCE ruling that allows for government officers to campaign off hours. He spoke of the conflict of interest when a Public Works minister visits with an engineer to request support, even if this is off hours. He said the same is when the Customs Agency director visits an exporter requesting economic support after 4 pm or on weekends. Or the Tax Agency director making rounds on weekends seeking campaign support for the government candidate.
He remarked that the government had assigned cabinet officers to campaign in areas where they would have the most influence. He mentioned the government assigned the director of the State Sugar Council to campaign in San Pedro de Macorís, the port director to San Cristóbal, among others.
He called for all politicians to comply with the law. He observed it was legislators of the ruling political party who were majority in Congress when the law was passed. “These are the same that now do not want to comply with the law,” he said. He stressed the spirit of the law is that government officers do not make use of government resources nor their privileged positions.
Paliza also said they have requested that the JCE carry out the necessary audits to determine the strengths and weaknesses of automated voting system. He said after these are carried out the party can say if it backs or not the automated voting system.
Listen to the podcast:
La Cuestion – Monday, 2 December 2019
3 December 2019