The National Council of the Magistracy (CNM) held the first hearing to choose four Constitiutional Court judges. The sessions will be held for four days and are presided by President Luis Abinader or Vice President Raquel Peña. The sessions are streamed live. 65 aspirants are being interviewed. They have five minutes to present the reasons why they seek the positions. The members of the CNM then have 15 minutes to ask questions. The plan is to announce the new Constitutional Court members by next week.
The CNM will also decide whether judge Francisco Ortega will continue at the Supreme Court.
For seven hours on Thursday, 14 January, the CNM met for the first 20 interviews to fill the Constitutional Court’s four vacancies. Legal advisor to the President, Antoliano Peralta, who is the spokesman for the CNM, said the participants in the assessment were mostly acting or past judges. He said the assessments will continue on Monday, 18 January 2021 at 9am. The last round of assessments is set for Wednesday, 20 January. He said the plan is that by Duarte Day (26 January), the CNM will be swearing in the four new Constitutional Court judges.
The CNM is expected to give preference to women candidates, given that at present there is only one woman Constitutional Court judge.
The aspirants were asked to give their opinions on the three exceptions for abortion, the limits of the government during a state of emergency, and same-sex marriage. There were inquiries into the applicant’s stands on virtual justice, the current work of the Constitutional Court and the competencies of this high court as opposed to those of Congress. Another issue raised was the aspirant’s position on whether or not the decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) are binding on the Dominican state, as reported in Hoy.
Those interviewed on Thursday in alphabetical order were:
Martín Alcántara Montero, Teófilo Andújar Sánchez, Erick Barinas García, Juan Alfredo Biaggi Lama, Manuel Ulises Bonnelly Vega, Elemer Tibor Borsos Rodríguez, and Úrsula Carrasco Márquez, Rafael Ciprián, Mery Laine Collado Tactuk, Franklin Concepción Acosta, Fernando Fernández Cruz, Catalina Ferreras Cuevas, Águeda García Contreras, Argenis García del Rosario, Francisca García Gómez, Delio Germán Figueroa, Alexis Gómez Geraldino, Ramón Horacio González Pérez, Yoaldo Hernández Perera and Manuel Hernández Victoria.
The members of the CNM are: President Luis Abinader, who presides it, or Vice President Raquel Peña in his absence; the presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Estrella and Alfredo Pacheco, respectively; the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Luis Henry Molina and the Attorney General of the Republic, Miriam German Brito.
Also, the senator for the province Hermanas Mirabal, Bautista Rojas Gómez; the deputy for the province Santiago, Víctor Fadul and Supreme Court of Justice judge, Magda Nancy Salcedo Fernández, who serves as secretary in the sessions of the CNM.
The media reported President Luis Abinader left the National Council of the Magistracy session to choose the judges for the Constitutional Court to participate in the La Romana event. He was temporarily replaced by Vice President Raquel Peña. He returned to the sessions in the afternoon.
Follow the assessments at:
CNM
CNM
N Digital
Hoy
El Dia
14 January 2021