The legislative proposal of the Referendum Law, submitted by the Central Electoral Board (JCE) in the Senate, has caused a commotion within the PLD since some are linking it to the possibility of modifying the 2010 Constitution to reestablish consecutive presidential re-election. Yesterday, Wednesday 11 December, La Vega province senator Euclides Sanchez called on the political parties and the National Congress to reform the Constitution to re-establish consecutive re-election for a single term. Sanchez said that the vast majority of senators and deputies back this position of returning to the United States system because they believe that one single four-year term is insufficient to develop a government program. “I believe that the Dominican political class has to immediately focus on a Constitutional reform in order to allow for a President of the Republic to exercise two consecutive periods and never again, because it is impossible for a president to implement a significant government program in four years,” he told Diario Libre reporters. Sanchez said that it was a mistake to have approved the current Constitutional ban on consecutive re-election, because, in his opinion, it is not good for the country to interrupt an administration if it is doing a good job. He said that if it is possible for a referendum to correct this error, which in his judgment they committed at the moment of approving the Constitution, this is the right time.
Leading PLD member Franklin Almeyda Rancier said that the party’s position on the legislative proposal of a Referendum Law should be made by the PLD Political Committee. “The ones to discuss this are the Political Committee and the decisions that this party organ takes will be related to how the PLD parliamentary bloc will behave,” he stated, while announcing the program of events for the PLD’s 40th anniversary.