In a press conference, US Representative for New York’s 13th congressional district Adriano Espaillat asked for the resignation of the president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Julio Castaños Guzmán. He made the request after the suspension of the municipal election following serious computer errors.
Espaillat also aired an old grievance: that the JCE had denied the right to around half a million expats to vote in the 6 October 2019 primary. He said that was a violation of the rights of Dominicans abroad. He said the new show of incapacity in handling the elections is reason enough to request that the JCE president resign. The election would have decided the next municipal authorities that would be sworn in on 24 April 2020.
Espaillat said that he had worked to get funding for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to monitor the electoral process on 16 February 2020 and will continue to work with them.
Former Dominican ambassador to the US Bernardo Vega asked if the crisis will discourage expats from voting in the presidential election scheduled for May 2020. Espaillat said the contrary will happen. He said there is lot of enthusiasm among voters in the United States to participate in the election.
Nevertheless, in the press conference, Vega said the JCE so far been negligent in organizing the vote of Dominicans abroad. He expressed his concern that the half a million voters would be left out of the vote again.
Journalist Altagracia Salazar shared a tweet reminding Dominicans that the replacement for Julio Castaños Guzmán is Jose Miguel Minier. Minier is the lawyer of Odebrecht commercial representative, Angel Rondón in the US$92 million bribe scandal.
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Listin Diario
17 February 2020