Former member of the Central Bank’s Monetary Board, economist Eduardo Garcia Michel comments that the country needs to undergo a major process of reflection for changes in Dominican democracy. In an op-ed contribution to Diario Libre today, Tuesday 17 May 2016, he writes that the election was a show in which all barriers of prudence were broken. He believes that the reinstatement of consecutive re-election into the Constitution was notable for its speed and use of resources, followed by he calls an “unfair and unequal” electoral campaign.
“This electoral process needs to serve as reference for what should never again be allowed: an election that was more or less correct in the form, unfair in depth, innovative in technology, but deplorable in lack of regulation of excesses,” he writes.
He observes: “What is left is a weaker country. A nation that is placed at the end of a cliff, a slip away from a new authoritarianism.”
He calls for urgent restructuring, with the participation of all, and a program of political reforms that guarantee that an electoral process in such unfair conditions is never held again.
He says that in its second term, the Medina administration must focus on strengthening institutions, resolving old requests of the community, so that the authorities can be imbued with a sense of legitimacy that is so necessary for peace in the land.
He called for the opposition to put aside the harmful individualism that impeded better results and that they become flag bearers for the changes the country needs and then retake the space so they can be options to reach power in the future.
http://www.diariolibre.com/opinion/en-directo/el-camino-equivocado-CA3705051
