The Central Electoral Board is objecting to legislation that grants Protestant churches in the Dominican Republic the authority to carry out marriage ceremonies according to their own traditions. According to the Listin Diario, the JCE declared, nonetheless, that it is the obligation of the legislators to determine beyond a doubt which congregations are to be considered appropriate to hold these ceremonies that are under legal controls.
The JCE wants the legislature to strictly define which of the Christian religions, besides the Catholic Church, should be considered as worthy of performing marriages, based on a study of the religious beliefs that will be applied to the marriage. The electoral judges also want to quantify the institutional strength of each church, the physical condition of its temples and the administrative capacity to maintain reliable, durable organized records that will guarantee that the public’s trust will not be betrayed and that good practice is observed. The judges point out that the marriage ceremony has enormous legal implications within state of law such as relationships, names, inheritance issues, nationality, parental authority and other issues. A special commission from the Electoral Board will meet with the Senate Committee that is studying the proposed legislation.