The People’s Force (FP) is getting two more senators. At the change of government, Dionis Sánchez and Felix Bautista confirmed they will be switching to the People’s Force bloc of senators. Dionis Sánchez was elected the voice of the People’s Force in government. He won the senate seat for the province of Pedernales on the PLD ticket and now is switching political parties. Pedernales is the Dominican province with the smallest population, at around 33,439 inhabitants
Felix Bautista is an infamous former director of the corruption-tainted Supervisory Office of Public Works under former President Leonel Fernández. Transparency International has named Bautista one of the most corrupt persons in the world. In the 2020 congressional election, Bautista was reelected senator for San Juan de la Maguana. In the primary, he had defeated the sister of former President Danilo Medina in the PLD primary.
With Sánchez and Bautista migrating to the People’s Force, the last-minute political party, formed when former President Leonel Fernández split from the PLD arguing fraud in the party primary in October, will now be the largest opposition party bloc in the Senate. This means it will be the FP, and not the PLD, that will have a seat in the National Council of the Magistracy. The National Council of the Magistracy chooses the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), Constitutional Court (TC) and Superior Electoral Court (TSE) judges.
Diario Libre reported on Monday, 17 August that in addition five deputies of the PLD were also migrating to the FP. These are Tobías Crespo, Aquilino Serrata, Enriqueta Rojas, Carlos García and Charlene Canáan.
The FP had joined forces with the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) in opposing the attempts by former President Danilo Medina to reform the Constitution a second consecutive time. In the 2020 general elections, the FP allied with the PRM to pool forces on select candidacies to defeat the PLD.
The Chamber of Deputies now presided by Alfredo Pacheco and the Senate, presided by Eduardo Estrella, announced sessions would be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Mondays and Fridays for the meeting of commissions.
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Diario Libre
16 August 2020