2006News

Romero to seek Senate seat

Agriculture Minister Amilcar Romero will stand for election as senator for the Province of Duarte (San Francisco de Macoris) in the 16 May 2006 congressional and municipal elections. His candidacy has the support of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) party. He is a leading figure in the newly created Popular Reform Party (PRP), a Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) dissident group, which failed to achieve recognition by the Central Electoral Board for the 2006 election. Romero is considered to be a strong candidate. He is best known for being a close aide of the late President Joaquin Balaguer, and was one of the mentors of the 1996 alliance between the PRSC and the PLD that catapulted Leonel Fernandez to his first presidency in 1996.

Romero is the second PLD government official to accept a senator seat position for the ruling party. The first to make the announcement was attorney general, Francisco Dominguez Brito, who announced he would contest the seat for the province of Santiago.