In an op-ed contribution to Diario Libre, former National District prosecutor, university law dean and Al Pais presidential candidate Guillermo Moreno writes on how the absence of strong institutions is the main weakness in the Dominican Republic. “In a country where there is no free, transparent and legal exercise of the vote, anything can happen.”
Moreno insists the central crisis affecting the country is the “total absence of institutions.” “The lack of an independent Judicial Branch deprives us of an impartial and reliable arbitrator in the application of the law….,” he writes.
He recalls how this dates back to when former President Leonel Fernandez imposed his Supreme Court of Justice, placing a lawyer of his law firm, Mariano Germán to preside the court, and excluding from the court judges who had voted against him in the Sunland corruption case. He says this practice was repeated when President Danilo Medina recently placed his partisan Luis Henry Molina to preside the court, and excluded judge Miriam Germán and others, due to their independent decisions.
He remarks on how political patronage decides in Congress and argues that the present Central Electoral Board (JCE) lacks the will, character and authority to guarantee a fair election.
“The PLD has imposed a dictatorship of the party that allows who controls the state, using public resources, to reproduce itself in power and its leadership to be illicitly enriched with an absolute impunity. In its almost 20 years of government, the PLD has taken charge of reversing the democratic advances that since 1961 have been won by the Dominican people with many struggles and sacrifices,” he writes.
He urges an end to PLD government to at the same time guarantee real separation of government branches, independent judiciary and electoral body.
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Diario Libre
15 October 2019