President Leonel Fernández rejected the suggestion of the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez, that he take a leave of absence. When asked about this by journalists he replied, "a leave of absence, for what?" A spokesman for the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, the government party, said that when the PRD and PRSC was in power, the president did not take a leave of absence at campaign time. Lidio Cadet, secretary general of the party, said that what Peña Gómez wants to avoid is the president attracting the votes of Dominicans in favor of the municipal and congressional candidates of the PLD. He said that both the PRD and the PRSC held the presidency at times when they were also majority in Congress. He complained that the PLD is a minority in Congress and that the opposition parties in the Congress have impeded the president from carrying out the PLD government program. The PLD needs to increase its congressional representation. Concluding, the President will continue attending campaign events around the country. The opposition has criticized that the President’s travels with government ministers and all use state resources in their travels. The PLD seeks to take advantage of the presidential endorsement, especially given the very high popularity of President Fernández. Rafael Taveras (Fafa) was critical of the National Palace becoming the headquarters of the PLD campaign, which is presided by Secretary of the Presidency, Danilo Medina, the party’s chief political strategist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Leonel Fernández rejected the suggestion of the leader of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez, that he take a leave of absence. When asked about this by journalists he replied, "a leave of absence, for what?" A spokesman for the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, the government party, said that … <\/p>\n