The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) would be getting the lion’s share of the taxpayer funding to political organizations, according to an analysis by Juan Bolivar Díaz in Hoy. The law establishes that 80% of the funds be distributed to political parties winning at least 5% of the vote. Only the PRM and the PLD received that level of votes. In 2016, the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) had reached the cut, too.
The feature in Hoy reports that the decision is based on a 21 May 2020 ruling by the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) and resolutions by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) on guidelines for determining the percentage of votes.
For the 2016 election, the calculation for ballot order and financing was based on the presidential level voting. In resolutions 34-2019 and 35-2019 of December 2019, the JCE established the average of the three levels (municipal, presidential and congressional), at least for ballot order.
There is lots of money involved if the law is to remain the same. The distribution established by law has been questioned as disproportionate even in the latest Organization of American States election observation report. The 2020 budget sets RD$1.6 billion be distributed to the political parties. Of these, the PRM and PLD, the only to receive over 5% in the three voting levels, would receive RD$644 million each.
The political parties People’s Force (FP), Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC), Country Alliance (Al Pais) and Dominicans for Change (DxC), which obtained over 1% on average, would receive RD$193 million, or about RD$38.6 million each.
The remaining 20 parties that participated in the elections would receive 8% of the subsidy, or RD$128.8 million, for RD$6.4 million each, barely 1% of what each of the two largest parties would receive.
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Hoy
5 August 2020