The president of the Senate, Eduardo Estrella swore in the new five members of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) and the five alternates on 11 November 2020.
Román Andrés Jáquez Lizandro will be presiding member. He leads a team of Rafael Armando Vallejo Santelises, Dolores Altagracia Fernández, Patricia Lorenzo and Sami Rafael Chami Isa. The alternates are: Dolores Vanahi Bello Dotel, Prado Antonio López Cornielle, Freddy Ángel Castro Díaz, Anibelca Rosario Rosario and Hirayda Marcelle Fernández Guzmán.
The Central Electoral Board is in charge of the civil registry and organizing general elections for 2024. In 2023, it will be celebrating its 100th anniversary.
A career electoral specialist, Roman Jaquez resigned his position as president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to head the JCE. He is a former dean at the legal school at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo. He was named to the National District Municipal Electoral Board where he worked with the 2008 and 2010 elections. He was later promoted to alternate of the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in 2011. He remained in the position through the 2012 and 2016 elections. In 2017 he was promoted to president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). He resigned the position to become the presiding member at the JCE.
During the event on Wednesday, 11 November, he spoke in representation of the new JCE team. He called the JCE “the home of Dominican democracy,” where politicians and independents and all sectors can have open, continuing and diverse dialogue to find common solutions, keeping to the Constitution, laws and democratic principles. He said he sees the mandate he receives as one of “civic duty.”
Jáquez addressed the importance of the civil registry. He said it is the body where national sovereignty begins. He said that he would ensure that innovation and technology is used to efficiently serve Dominicans in the country and those abroad and that institutional errors are corrected.
He committed that Dominicans who live in the country and the diaspora will be able to expect quality, efficient, timely and fair services in line with the times. He promised innovation and the use of available technology to accomplish these objectives.
He said he is aware of the many challenges, but he would work to confront these with “character, firmness, collective spirit, tolerance, transparency and openness.
He announced the next elections would be served by a transparent civil registry and will be open to the diaspora. He said the task is to work with the 158 electoral municipalities, so that these are made up by persons skilled in the electoral system and with democratic values.
Jaquez ended his words by acknowledging that institutionality is built, trust is not imposed with a rubber stamp, but has to be earned.
The new board takes over from a JCE characterized by turmoil. The preceding board had to deal with two new electoral laws, the new requirement of organizing political primaries, and three elections in less than a year’s time.
The former ruling party, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) has objected the naming of Román Jáquez to preside the JCE. Spokesmen for the PLD say the today ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) reached an agreement with former President Leonel Fernández of the new People’s Force political party to appoint Jáquez.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
Listen to interviews in Spanish with Ramón Jáquez:
Interview for position of member at the JCE:
Interview for position of Superior Electoral Court judge in 2017:
El Dia
11 November 2020