The Senate committee in charge of assessing the applicants for the five Central Electoral Board (JCE) member seats and their five alternates held the first 24 interviews with candidates for the positions on Tuesday, 29 September. There are 334 candidates to the positions.
Senators Ricardo de los Santos, Ramón Rogelio Genao, Faride Raful, Melania Salvador, Bautista Rojas Gómez, Franklin Rodríguez, Antonio Taveras Guzmán, Iván Lorenzo Silva and José del Castillo Saviñon represent the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and the People’s Force (FP) in the assessment committee.
The Senate committee is interviewing the candidates in the same order these applied. Nevertheless, the committee has not explained the assessment criteria that is being used to develop the shortlist of candidates.
The president of the committee, Ricardo de los Santos expects they will take about three weeks to complete the interviewing of the candidates. Candidates are given five minutes to present why they should be chosen and then the members of the committee gets to ask them three questions.
After the entire interview process has been completed, the committee must prepare the lists of full and alternate members and send them to the senate plenary session for a vote.
The JCE is responsible for the civil registry and organizing the presidential, congressional, and municipal elections.
El Caribe features a report that looks into the internal conflict within the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM). President Luis Abinader has recommended that the party vote for persons with professional track records showing independence of criteria and not for those with known strong political partisanship.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
El Nuevo Diario
El Caribe
30 September 2020