President Danilo Medina, who leaves office in August, has been scheduled to inaugurate dozens of public works on Monday and Tuesday. Nevertheless, given that the Presidency has announced an extraordinary cabinet meeting to announce emergency measures to confront the Covid-19 for Monday, 16 March at 4pm, it is yet to be seen if the plan for the inaugurations is to go as scheduled.
The electoral law allows a two-day window for the President to inaugurate the public works before the official opening of the presidential electoral campaign.
On the list of inaugurations is the christening of the Punta Catalina coal-fired generation facility in Azua, the most costly project undertaken by the Medina administration. Medina is expected to travel to Puerto Plata to inaugurate the Navarrete to Puerto Plata highway, and the Santiago to Puerto Plata Tourist Highway (Gregorio Luperon).
Greater Santo Domingo inaugurations include the II-B Section of the Santo Domingo Beltway, the Palace of Justice in Santo Domingo, the Ecological Avenue, the renovated museums at the Plaza de la Cultura, and the Ozama and La Isabela river La Zurza water treatment plant.
On the list of projects that the Presidency has announced President Medina will inaugurate are also: El Riíto in La Vega; Tenguerengue, New Mesopotamia, in San Juan de la Maguana; and the San Juan Beltway.
The inaugurations would have served to give a boost to the ruling party candidate, Gonzalo Castillo, a former minister of Public Works. Polls show Castillo without a chance to win in the presidential election of May 2020, despite billionaire support from the Medina administration.
For the first time on Sunday, 15 March 2020, President Danilo Medina made a public comment on the Covid-19 virus. He said the country is following guidelines from the World Health Organization. He said additional measures would be announced once it is determined there is community transmission of the virus. Speaking on municipal election day, he congratulated the Dominican people for exercising democratic rights on the rescheduled election day. “The country is back on the institutional path, that is the big gain,” said Medina when answering questions of the press on election day.
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El Dia
16 March 2020