President Danilo Medina is openly campaigning to ensure the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) continues to control the government. El Caribe, in its report on Medina’s campaigning, recalls that on 21 October 2019, President Medina had announced: “I will win the next elections.” El Caribe observes that the campaigning by the President is a challenge to the Central Electoral Board (JCE) in regards to active campaigning by government officers and the use of state resources in the campaigns.
For the first time in Dominican political history, the JCE had authorized by Resolution 33-2019 that government officers campaign in their “off hours.” But El Caribe reports that the electoral agency has not taken any action against public officials who appear in campaign events during their official working hours nor has it taken any action against the fact that the President of the Republic is in practice the campaign manager of his party.
Speaking during a campaign activity in Santiago on Sunday, 2 February 2020, President Medina stated:
“We have been the best government in the history of the Dominican Republic; we have the largest and most powerful party in electoral and organizational terms of any party in Latin America. If you have that lethal combination, a successful government, the best management of government and we have the best party in the Dominican Republic, winning now depends only on you… We have it all” … he said.
President Medina said that the municipal election would be the prelude to victory in May. He denied the practice of buying votes.
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El Caribe
4 February 2020