Political talks are scheduled to continue this Tuesday, 10 March 2020 at the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). The talks are promoted by the Economic and Social Council (CES), an advisory group under the Ministry of the Presidency.
Perhaps the major decision taken during the latest PUCMM conversations last week was the proposal to (a) set limits on the Commission of Observers, and (b) to include some of the young people who had demonstrated against the failure of the previous attempt to hold municipal elections last month, among the election observers. Leaders of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) have advanced these proposals and other actors, such as Citizen Participation, have seconded them. The members of the Observers Commission would theoretically come from a diversity of selected institutions.
Another of the topics debated at the PUCMM is the naming of the electoral prosecutor. The law establishes that the Attorney General should name the prosecutor. The civic group Citizen Participation had maintained that rather than the discredited Attorney General naming the prosecutor, the country should do without the electoral prosecutor. Groups representing youth are calling for the prosecutor to be elected by consensus. Citizen Participation is now open to naming the prosecutor by consensus. The discussions of this topic are expected to continue on Tuesday.
The space at the PUCMM has given a table for the representatives of the two leading political parties, the PLD and the PRM, to discuss pending issues. Nothing concrete has come yet from the dialogues. The talks are being streamed live.
Parallel to these widely publicized talks, the youth groups behind the Plaza de la Bandera mobilizations are hosted an alternative talk on Friday, 6 March. The young people had refused to participate in the government-sponsored political talks at the PUCMM and limited their attendance to depositing their proposals on grounds these were not democratic. Furthermore, the young people say the CES, a government dependency under the Presidency of the Republic, does not have the independence to act as a mediator in the conflict.
A ruling PLD or government representation did not show for the opening of the youth talks. Those that were present were representatives of the PRM, Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC), People’s Force (FP), Alianza País, Frente Amplio and several other minority groups and movements. The talks are moderated by psychiatrist Hector Guerrero Heredia.
Read more in Spanish:
Somos Pueblo
Somos Pueblo
Listin Diario
Hoy
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Somos Pueblo
El Nacional
9 March 2020