President Luis Abinader, speaking during his weekly press conference, La Semanal, said he would not seek office again once he leaves government in 2028. He says that the opposition that doubts he will keep his word thinks this way because their leadership promised the same and didn’t keep their word in the past. The past three Dominican presidents – Leonel Fernandez, Hipolito Mejía and Danilo Medina, all maneuvered to change the Constitution to enable their running for another term.
The 2015 Constitution under which President Luis Abinader was elected bans him from seeking a third term in office. Abinader has said he wants to push forward amendments to the Constitution, but insists it is not to enable him to run again.
Abinader says he wants to use the majority the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) received in the 2024 presidential and congressional election to instate changes in the Constitution to keep the present two two terms in government and ensure that his successors cannot modify the Constitution for their own benefit as has happened in the past.
Speaking during LA Semanal press conference, Abinader said: “I don’t blame the friends of the opposition who oppose reforms, because this is what they have done during their terms, change the Constitution to reel in or place the Constitution without limits, and this is exactly what I want to do differently, I assure you,” he said. He said his vision is that the Constitution that is modified during his mandate be the one that most fosters democracy.
“And I want to act now at a time when we have, starting from the 16th of August, absolute control. At a time when I hold absolute power, I want to limit this power, this is the example that I want to give… and one of the main legacies, as well as the proposals for the independent Public Minister,” he highlighted.
Regarding the consensus of the reforms, he says he wants the Constitutional reform to go first to send the message of the credibility of the other reforms.
He remarked on recent comments by the elected senator for the province of La Altagracia, Rafael Barón Duluc (Cholitín), who has said the President is too young to not seek another term in office.
“I tell my friend Cholitín, you can be the candidate, but will be there only until 2028, and I will not return to the Presidency; that is my political decision, as a Dominican, and also my personal decision, and this is what I want you to do it suits the Dominican Republic,” he said.
The President said there is skepticism because of recent history. “And here I tell you that here there are no more people prepared to be President, to have a better government than I am doing. There are many people here who can do it as well or better than I do,” he declared. No one is indispensable, he stressed.
Presidential legal advisor, Antoniano Peralta, said recently that the Constitutional Reform draft prepared by the Presidency for submitting to Congress is advanced.
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Diario Libre
LA Semanal
11 June 2024