The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) says the simultaneous primaries can still be held on 6 October 2019 as scheduled, even though only two political parties, the ruling PLD and the leading opposition party PRM, will keep the method to choose their candidates for the 2020 general election. The PLD has announced it would use the general JCE voters list, the PRM has said it will use its membership voters list.
Earlier this week, the PRD chairman, Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado, had announced the party would not choose their presidential candidates in open primaries as had earlier been announced. He said they would soon announce their method. Participation in open primaries would have cost the PRD RD$120 million.
Several members of the PRD, nevertheless have objected to the change announced by Vargas Maldonado, including PRD secretary general Tony Peña Guaba. Others that object the legality of the announcement to not hold the open primaries are grouped under Rescate PRD, whose spokesman Guido Gómez Mazara aspires to replace Vargas Maldonado at the helm of the PRD. Gómez Mazara has said that Vargas Maldonado is avoiding the primaries because he fears not being voted party chair or presidential candidate. Other PRD leaders that oppose the measure are Tonty Rutinel, Ruddy González, César Guzmán and Andrés Henríquez.
On Wednesday, 3 April 2019, two minority parties, the Alianza País and the Opción Democrática, also announced they no longer would participate in the primaries since the JCE did not accept their bid to participate as a coalition.
“Technically the withdrawal does not affect anything,” said Julio César Castaños, president of the JCE. He explained that in the case of the PRD, the JCE must wait for the official letter to be deposited by the party. Furthermore, he confirmed that if the PRD does not participate in the 6 October primaries, there now would be US$120 million pesos less to pay for the cost. Then he explained that the central government has said it would meet the bill for the difference, and Administrative Minister of the Presidency had spoken of a “complementary budget.”
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El Caribe
4 April 2019