The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Román Jáquez Liranzo says there is no point in reducing the limit for allowed political campaign expenses if enforceable sanctions for candidates or pre-candidates who are proven to have incurred in illicit acts such as drug trafficking or money laundering are not included. He made the remarks in an interview on “El Despertador,” Channel 9. He looked into the weaknesses of the present Law of Political Parties, Groupings and Movements (33-18) and the Electoral Regime Law (15-19).
“The current law establishes that when a political party receives illicit goods or money, the members or directors can be sanctioned through the provisions of the Money Laundering Law,” explained the head of the JCE, as reported in N Digital. Nevertheless, he said that the Political Parties Law (33-18) is lax regarding political organizations. He mentioned that in the past elections the pre-candidates did not even report their expenses.
Regarding statements made by Government Ethics director Milagros Ortiz Bosch, who assured that the advance of organized crime in politics since the JCE is because the JCE is lax in verifying financing, Jaquez Liranzo said the electoral law does not contemplate the JCE imposing sanctions.
The JCE has proposed to create a department for complaints, preventive measures and administrative sanctions against illicit acts in electoral campaigns in amendments to the political parties and electoral regime laws that would need to be approved by Congress.
“Organized crime and drug trafficking are powerful. They permeate the strongest institutions of the states not just in the Dominican Republic, but of the world (…). If this is approved and I am sure that it will considerably reduce the incursion criminals have in the management of resources,” he asserted.
Jaquez said that preferential vote may have to be eliminated. He said the candidate that has more resources is who gets the preferential vote.
Jaquez’s comments come as the country learns more about the Operation Falcon, one of the biggest cases to come into the open about drug trafficking and its infiltration in the political establishment. Several active and past legislators are under investigation for their ties to a major drug trafficking network that operated at large for years.
PRM senator for the National District, Faride Raful also called on 15 September 2021 for amendments to the laws to bring more controls on the political parties. She said that the lack of enforcement of a cap on campaign expenses and effective supervision by the Central Electoral Board opens door to drug trafficking operations. She said the lack of party leadership encourages this. She called for controls to political patronage practices.
She said the present situation drives home the need to amend the Electoral Regime Law to instate more controls. She said she had presented 13 proposals to this end that have been rejected by her colleagues in Congress.
The senator of the National District favors that political parties not be exempted from criminal liability, as the draft of the Penal Code approved in the Chamber of Deputies allows.
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El Despertador
N Digital
El Caribe
Diario Libre
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16 September 2021