The Presidency acquiesced and will be handing over the full allotment ordered by the Political Parties Law to political parties. The government had announced it would cut the allotment from RD$1.265 billion to RD$639 million. The savings would go to build a branch for the state university (UASD) in eastern Santo Domingo. Yet this was not accepted by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) nor opposition and government legislators that called for the government to adhere to the Political Parties Law stipulation for funding political parties.
The Abinader government had argued this is not an electoral year and savings would have better use for education. The reduction had been approved in the 2021 Budget, even when it violates the Political Parties law stipulation. There are many laws that order allotments of budget that are not complied with by the present or past governments.
The president of the JCE, Román Jáquez, had sent a communication to the National Budget director, José Rijo Presbot, requesting the allocation of RD$1.26 billion for the financing of the political organizations, instead of the RD$630 million approved in the budget.
Rijo Presbot’s response was that neither the Political Parties Law nor the Electoral Regime Law establish the amount of resources that will be destined to political parties. That this is established in the 2021 National Budget for 2021. Nevertheless, it seems the government is ordering the full allotment to be delivered to the political parties. The ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) get 80% of the total allotment. The rest is allocated to minority political parties.
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El Nuevo Diario
N Digital
23 February 2021