The PLD Political Committee met on Tuesday, 20 February 2024 to analyze the party’s overall defeat in the municipal elections. The former ruling political party, the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) won 16 of 158 mayor seats in the 18 February election. The ruling Modern Revolutionary Party won 121 seats, up from 113 in the 2020 election.
The PLD is still reeling from the schism within the party, when in 2019 party president and three-term President of the Republic, Leonel Fernandez created the People’s Force to run in the 2020 presidential election. The PLD ran instead with its candidate Gonzalo Castillo, both separately losing to Luis Abinader of the PRM.
Since then, the former political party that controlled the Presidency and for the most part Congress and city governments from 1996 to 2020 (with just the exception of the government of Hipolito Mejia – 2000-2004), has been on the decline.
The opposition party has called the municipal election an “unequal electoral process.”
Yet, most PLD and FP members call for the two party kingpins and former Presidents, Danilo Medina and Leonel Fernandez, put aside their interests and again join forces in time for the presidential and congressional election on 19 May 2024.
PLD party activist Melanio Paredes says the party has to reach out to those who did not vote in the municipal election. The PLD lost badly in the hometown of the PLD presidential candidate, Abel Martinez, Santiago de los Caballeros. In Santiago, deputy Victor Fadul only managed 30% of the vote compared to 70% of his contender, Ulises Rodriguez, from the PRM.
Opposition legislator Dionis Sánchez (Pedernales- Fuerza del Pueblo – FP), said that there are hidden agendas in the opposition front (PLD, FP and PRD) that weakened the alliance amongst the parties. As reported in El Nuevo Diario, he added that in the face of the congressional and presidential elections, a total and sincere alliance must be made to win the trust of the voters. “If we are going to make an alliance, either we make it complete or it will not do anything. Making an alliance that generates the entire level of trust that is only achieved if we make it complete, even to go in the first round,” he said.
Meanwhile, former legislator Ramon Ventura Camejo resigned from the board of the PLD. As reported in Diario Libre, the former government minister said the PLD needs to carry out a broad and deep reflection that provides an impartial analysis of the current situation, allowing the understanding of the new realities and the efficient response to the challenges imposed by the new political reality of the Dominican Republic.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Noticias SIN
El Nuevo Diario
El Nuevo Diario
El Caribe
El Caribe
El Dia
21 February 2024