President Hipolito Mejia has chosen to address the nation tonight, 12 August, at 8pm, following a cabinet meeting. The speech will be televised on Channel 4, the state television station.
On Monday, 16 August, President Mejia also announced that he would place the banner of President on his successor Leonel Fernandez and remain until Fernandez is sworn in by the president of the Senate. He said he would not, however, stay to hear his successor?s inaugural speech.
Mejia said this change in the mandate protocol followed since 1966 had been agreed upon with Felix Jimenez, coordinator of the ceremony. Mejia explained that he would leave Congress because to ?place oneself there in the future and the past and be there listening to all the kinds of things that have been said here, I do not think is convenient.? He explained this protocol is also used in Venezuela.
Mejia said upon leaving office he would return to the former business he had before becoming President, but would first take a vacation. He discarded the notion of residing abroad. ?I get my rest here. I rest surrounded by farming, in my house,? he said.
Hoy newspaper?s Coctelera commentary speculates that one of the reasons that Mejia may have chosen not to be present is that he could be booed upon arriving to the seat of Congress.
Hoy reports that a battalion of the presidential guard would pay tribute to Mejia before he goes to Congress for the transfer of power. The newspaper highlights that the only other statesman to do the same was President Salvador Jorge Blanco (1982-1986), who spent the evening of 15 August at the Presidential Palace.