The plenary session of the Central Electoral Council (JCE) has asked the General Budget Bureau (Digepres) to “release” all resources from the state resources corresponding to the entity to distribute among the various political parties.
In a letter to the Director of Digepres, José Rijo Presbot, the chairman of the JCE, Román Jáquez Liranzo, said that this request was made in accordance with Law No. 237-20 approving the general state budget for the year 2021.
“We ask that the release intended to comply with the provisions of Article 61 of Law 33-18, on political parties, groups and movements with respect to the economic contribution of political organizations, must be in the amount of (RD $ 1,260 400.00) and not half of the aforementioned amount, this in accordance with the principle of legality ”, according to the letter, which is also signed by the other members of the plenary meeting.
For this year 2021, the executive initially ordered the allocation of 1,260 million pesos to be divided among the political parties. However, according to the general state budget, only RD $ 630,200,000 will be allocated to political organizations, with the other half listed as “not applicable”.
According to several political party leaders consulted by this newspaper, that decision had not been agreed with those organizations, most of which were against the president’s decision.
The President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, announced last October that he would propose to the National Congress to cut 50% of the quota that political parties receive, as 2021 was not electoral and thus he would use those resources to build the expansion. of the UASD in the municipality of Santo Domingo Este.
Law 33-2018 on Political Parties, Groups and Movements, stipulates that 80% of the resources allocated by the executive branch to be distributed among the political parties will be redistributed equally among those that have more than 5% of the votes in the last choice.
According to the JCE regulation 01-2021 which stipulates that only the PRM and the PLD were designated as majority parties, while the People’s Force remained as a minority party by reaching 4.54%, coupled with the two electoral levels contested in the last 5 July elections, congress and president.
Under this criterion, the PRM was left with 44.95%, the PLD with 32.30%, with the JCE indicating those two parties as the sole majority.