National Assembly convened on Saturday to amend the Constitution to allow re-election

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 04 Jun 2015 by Pavel Isa
Last Tuesday, the House approved by a significant majority the bill that calls for a meeting of the National Assembly to discuss the proposal to amend the article of the Constitution which impedes a sitting President to run for re-election. The amendment proposed would allow a President to run for a second term, after which he/she would not be allowed to run again ever. Recall that last week the Senate voted unanimously for the bill, after an agreement was reached between competing factions within the ruling Partido de Liberación Dominicana (PLD). The National Assembly has been convened for Saturday 6th. We expect that the change in the Constitution will be accomplished that very same day. The Yes vote won by a landslide (148 votes out of 190) because supporters of re-election of President Medina were also able get full support from member of Congress of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), after an agreement was reached, allegedly to conform a common electoral platform. Until two weeks ago, PRD President, Miguel Vargas Maldonado, rejected the proposal to amend the Constitution and said that “PRD was a wall against re-election”. Details of the agreement are yet to be known but in our view, it was the result of the extremely low electoral preferences of PRD revealed by polls, whose congresspersons ran to PLD for political and electoral shelter and for resources in exchange for support to amend the Constitution. Although PLD speakers are praising the agreement saying that for the first time in recent history, the three most important political parties (PLD, PRSC and PRD), which have been fierce political enemies since democracy was restored, are in the same side ...

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