A shakeup of the Legislative Branch is coming this 16 August 2020 when Congress resumes its activities. After eight years in the opposition, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) is taking over the majority role. The party legislators will have the deciding vote in the Senate and majority vote in the Chamber of Deputies.
The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) has the lead with 108 of the 222 legislators, or 49% overall. The PRM legislators will control two-thirds of the vote in the Senate, and a simple majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The breakdown for the 2020-2024 Legislative Branch by political parties is now:
PRM (108), PLD (81), Social Christian Party -PRSC- (11), People’s Force -FP- (5), Dominican Revolutionary Party -PRD- (3), Alliance for Democracy -APD- (2), Social Institutional Bloc -BIS- (2), Country Alliance -AlPais- (1), Dominicans for Change -DxC- (1), Broad Front -Frente Amplio- (2), FA/PDH (1), PCR (1), PHD (1), PLR (1), PPC (1) and PRSD (1).
The Political Observatory of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (OPD-Funglode) published a report with statistics on the new make up of the Legislative Branch. These are some of the insights.
Women will be 23.4% of Dominican legislators, once they are sworn in on 16 August 2020. Of the 222 legislators, 52 will be women and 172 men. The number of women is down from 56 women in the 2016-2020 Congress.
In the Senate, there will be five women. This is one more than for the 2016-2020 term. Nevertheless, only 12.5% of the Senate will be women. In the Chamber of Deputies, there will be 48 women, five less than in 2016-2020. Women will be 25% in that legislative chamber.
The OPD-Funglode study reveals that legislators in the age group 51-55 make up the biggest age group, with 41 of 222 legislators, or 18.4%. In the Senate the average age is 56 years; in the Chamber of Deputies, it is 50.
There are more young people in the legislative chambers now. The number of people ages 26 to 35 years old increased to 50% in the Chamber of Deputies. There are no millennials in the Senate. 17.4% of the legislators are single.
57% (127 legislators) are first-time legislators. The remaining 43% (95 legislators) have been reelected, consecutively or not, from two to nine times. 39.6% of the legislators were reelected, consecutively or not. The OPD-Funglode highlights that 91% of the Senate are new people.
OPD-Funglode reports that 31.6% of the legislators are lawyers, 11.7% business managers, 11.3% teachers, 7.4% medical doctors and 6.9% accountants.
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OPD-Funglode
12 August 2020