Former President Leonel Fernández says he sat on the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) Political Committee with Gonzalo Castillo for around five years, and Castillo never had anything to say. “He’s a media creation put together by advertising and political consultants,” he sai
Fernández left the PLD in 2019 after the contested 6 October primary. Fernández said the primary was rigged to favor Castillo. The next year, the automated voting machines that were tested in that primary were banned for the municipal, presidential and congressional elections.
“They ask him about education and he has no opinion about education, neither good nor bad, he has none. You ask him about the health sector and he has no opinion on the health sector. He doesn’t have an opinion on anything,” said the former PLD president when interviewed for TV CDN’s Decisions 2020 program.
Castillo has not been available for public debates, nor for any of the independent talk shows where he would have to speak without a teleprompter.
Fernández says it is dangerous that someone with the characteristics of Gonzalo Castillo aspires to lead the Dominican Republic, and even more so when a pandemic is affecting the entire social, political and economic sphere of the country.
Fernández is hopeful none of the candidates will reach the 50%+1 minimum to win in a first round, and that the elections will again be decided on 26 July 2020, the scheduled date for the second round. The former President reiterated that the ruling party will not be able to win in the first round and that “all the data indicates that in a second round the rank and file will vote for the People’s Force,” because the purple vote is recomposing and inclining towards the organization he leads.
When asked if he would support the ruling party, Fernandez said he does not see any scenario in which he could vote for the PLD, ruling out any kind of alliance and remembering that in that party, one faction lost its way and went astray.
Read more in Spanish:
N Digital
Listin Diario
10 June 2020