When in November 2014 the current led by Hipólito Mejía and the current president Luis Abinader decided to leave the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) because of the disagreements they had with Miguel Vargas Maldonado, and the way in which it carried the guidelines of the political entity and founded the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), needed a statutory basis in their head to transform the Dominican Social Alliance.
For this reason, the nascent PRM took virtually the same guidelines as the PRD had in its internal statutes at the time of separation, including the current Article 101 which states that “until the Modern Revolutionary Party ( PRM) convenes a congress to discuss the issue of presidential re-election, it will be banned. “
Now with a reform of the entire articulation of the forthcoming party statutes, the content of this article may be changed to favor these airs.
From the PRD of Peña Gómez
The principle of not allowing consecutive presidential re-election has been in the statutes of the PRD since the mid-1970s, driven by its finite leader José Francisco Peña Gómez, who said that it had been a “curse left by Trujillo “and based on this line they focused their action on both the opposition and the bureaucracy.
They even stayed that way despite winning their first election with Antonio Guzmán Fernández in 1978, deciding to take Salvador Jorge Blanco (who won the 1982 election) even though the then Constitution did not prevent the repostulation of Guzmán to the position.
It was the PRD represented by Peña Gómez that signed in 1994 with the then president Joaquín Balaguer the so-called “Pact for Democracy” which, among others, already well-known edges, managed to reform the Magna Carta and thus to impose the elimination of the figure of the “consecutive presidential repostulation” of the same, being this one indicated like “of the greatest successes” of the perredeísta leader.
Hippolytus returns the re-election
Despite this success of Penya Gómez it is during the second and until the last government led by the PRD, that the figure of re-election is brought back.
In the year 2002, just four years after the death of Penya-eight of the constitutional reform that eliminated it, the president of turn and then leader of PRD, Hipólito Mejía manages to modify the Constitution and to return to place the figure of the repostulation for a second consecutive period but this time with the aggregate that whoever did so could not compete for the presidency of the Republic. This change generated a division in the PRD that culminated with the departure of the leader and friend of Peña Gómez, Hatuey de Camps, who founded the Social Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRSD).
Mejía is currently a member of the executive board of the PRM, which is the highest body of this party entity.
On one side and on the other
Although Mejía is carrying out the constitutional reform, it was Leonel Fernández, then of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), who took advantage of it and during his second consecutive period promotes a complete change in the text. constitutional where, among other things, the consecutive repostulation next to never is eliminated more. This last move is achieved after the signing of the “Pact of blue ties” with Miguel Vargas and the PRD.
On this occasion, Vargas Maldonado made a statement stating that “the exclusion of the presidential re-election of the Constitution and the determination to make institutionalism prevail in this organization, are part of the commitment to claim the democratic coherence of José Francisco Penya Gómez “. They now show vindication for what was done by Mejia eight years earlier.
However when in 2014 he began to set positions “in favor” of the re-election of Danilo Medina (which he later won) was part of the causes that led to the group games led by Abinader and Mejia.
The reform in the PRM will not be “conjunctural”
Barely eight months at the head of the Executive Branch, the repostulation of Abinader is pointed out by various sectors as a possibility, but to achieve this, the statutes of the PRM would have to be amended.
On the subject of a reform, the chairman of the Statutory Reform Commission of the Modern Revolutionary Party, Eddy Olivares, informed the DIAIRO guide that on May 1 he will present a proposal to the executive directorate on the reformulation of the 137 articles of its internal statutes, including the topic of the presidential non-repostulation.
“We made changes to all the articles, ie the 137 articles have been modified either in substance or in wording … in the case of 101 these changes will be known to the extraordinary national convention, so that if, this article is under discussion at the moment and it will be the members of the convention, where the party will be represented in its entirety that will decide whether or not to approve these changes, “Olivares said.
The political leader was emphatic in pointing out that the content of Article 101 is not the main reason for the reform and that most of the changes that will be submitted, were already ready to be approved by July 2019 but because they were in the middle of the pre-campaign they decided to leave it for after the elections.
“Abinader is upset when he is told about re-election”
During a meeting held last Sunday, the leader of the PRM Franklin García stated that a reform is proposed in the statutes of the political body to allow a new presidential term, but just the next day the party president and minister Administrative President of the Presidency, José Ignacio Pallissa, said that Abinader is not thinking about re-election.
“The president is focused on governing, to get this country out of the crisis and to create jobs, there is no other project or other idea that moves us to this,” Pallissa told reporters covering Palau Nacional and even and he has all added that he has seen an “annoying Abinader” when someone approaches him on the subject.
Today the President of the Republic, while he was in the opposition always fixed positions contrary to the consecutive presidential re-election but as it is allowed by the current Constitution, the possibility is not entirely closed.
And during the recently concluded week he asked his party not to touch on this issue for the next 2 years and to concentrate on the government tasks entrusted to it by Dominican society.