Ruling PLD party secretary Reinaldo Pared Perez is optimistic that discussions within the party will lead to the passing of the Political Parties Bill during this legislature. In an official PLD statement, the politician, who has also announced his presidential pre-candidacy for the party, said the matter would be discussed at the next PLD Political Committee meeting.
The bill has been in Congress for more than 10 years. What has happened is that politicians express support for the bill when they are out of government, but then do nothing about it when they are in power.
As reported in El Dia, the law would oblige the political parties to elect new party directors every four years, directors would only be able to handpick 20% of the party’s candidates, secret vote would be instituted for authorities and candidates, political parties need to have clear financial accountability systems, political primaries must be held to elect candidates, a five-month campaign period is set for pre-candidacies, individual contributions to finance candidates are limited, the winner of a position cannot be removed, abuse of government resources for pre-campaigns is banned, public works cannot be inaugurated six months before the election, among others.