The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and the People’s Force (FP) party are requesting that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) call a meeting with political parties to discuss various issues related to the organization of the extraordinary presidential and congressional elections now scheduled for 5 July 2020. The political parties want to learn more about the protocol that would be established for the election during the Covid-19 epidemic. They also seek participation in the naming of the new IT director and call for reviewing the status of the deputy directors at the JCE.
“We are 74 days away from these elections, therefore, from now on, we must work to protect the health of Dominicans and so that free, fair and equitable election can be held,” states the document submitted by the party. It is signed by Orlando Jorge Mera and Manuel Crespo, delegates to the JCE for the PRM and the Fuerza del Pueblo, respectively.
The opposition political parties say that the deputy directors should be subject to review by the JCE as part of a restructuring and cleanup of the IT department after the report submitted by the Organization of American States (OAS) investigative mission on the failure of the automated voting system on 16 February 2020. The OAS mission concluded the system had failed for mismanagement of the JCE and its IT department. The IT director Miguel Angel García was dismissed. Since then, deputy directors Juan Carlos Saladin, Luis Leger, Johnny Rivera, and Orlyn Pereyra have taken over the area.
Article 16 of Law 15-19 on the electoral regime establishes that the positions of directors of Elections, Information Technology, Civil Registry and Electoral Registry will be designated after consultation with the political parties.
The PRM and FP say they are also requesting discussions on electoral guarantees and equal access to state media and the restructuring of municipal electoral boards, in very specific cases, in accordance with Article 45 of Law No.15-19.
This article states that when appointing the members and secretaries of the electoral boards and their respective substitutes, an attempt should be made to appoint individuals who are not affiliated with any political party; and if this is not possible, non-activist members of two or more recognized political parties should be appointed, so that none of them has a majority of votes on the board, and especially in all cases the president and the secretary, as well as their respective substitutes and substitutes, belong to different political parties.
Both PRM and Fuerza del Pueblo requested that representatives of the OAS, the Institutional Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Citizen Participation and the JCE’s new support commission be invited to the hearing.
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Listin Diario
Hoy
23 April 2020