Then in November 2014, the movement led by Hipólito Mejía and 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 he was implementing the political entity’s guidelines and they founded the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), they needed a legal basis to transform the Dominican Social Alliance.
For that reason, the nascent PRM adopted practically the same guidelines that the PRD had in its internal statutes at the time of the divorce, including what is enshrined in current Article 101 which states that ‘until the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) calls a congress to to discuss the issue of presidential reelection, it will be banned. “
Now with a reform of all the articles of the next party’s statutes to be implemented, the content of that article can be changed to favor those airs.
From Peña Gómez’s PRD
The principle of not allowing consecutive presidential elections has been in the PRD statutes since the mid-1970s, promoted by the late leader José Francisco Peña Gómez, who said it was a “ curse left by Trujillo ” and in Based along that line, they focused their actions on both the opposition and the ruling party.
In fact, they stayed that way despite winning their first election with Antonio Guzmán Fernández in 1978, when they decided to take Salvador Jorge Blanco (who triumphed in the 1982 election) with everything and that the then constitution did not prevent Guzmán’s reappointment to the indictment .
It was the PRD represented by Peña Gómez who signed in 1994 with then-president Joaquín Balaguer the so-called ‘Pact for Democracy’ that, among other things, already known edges, succeeded in reforming the Magna Carta and with it the elimination of the figure. was imposed. of the “successive presidential repostulation” of the same, as this has been referred to as one of the “greatest achievements” of the PRD leader.
Hipólito brings back reelection
Despite this achievement of Peña Gómez, it is during the second and until the last government under the leadership of the PRD that the number of re-elections is reduced.
In 2002, just four years after Peña’s death and eight years after the constitutional reform that eliminated it, the incumbent president and then leader of the PRD, Hipólito Mejía, managed to amend the constitution and re-register the figure for a second to be replaced consecutively. period, but this time adding that whoever did so could not compete again for the presidency of the Republic. This change caused divisions in the PRD that culminated in the departure of Peña Gómez’s leader and friend Hatuey de Camps, who founded the Social Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRSD).
Mejía is currently a member of the executive leadership of the PRM, the supreme body of that party entity.
On the one hand and the other
Despite the fact that Mejía is the one who is implementing the constitutional reform, it was Leonel Fernández, then of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), who took advantage of this and, during his second consecutive period, promoted a complete change of the constitutional text which included the consecutive repost next to never is eliminated. This last movement is achieved after the signing of the “Pact of blue ties” with Miguel Vargas and the PRD.
On that occasion, Vargas Maldonado made statements stating that “ the exclusion of presidential reelection from the constitution and the determination to let institutionality prevail in that organization are part of José Francisco Peña’s commitment to democratic cohesion. Gómez. . “Testify what Mejía did eight years earlier.
However, when he started to take positions in 2014 “in favor” of the reelection of Danilo Medina (which he later achieved), this was one of the reasons that led to the departure of the group led by Abinader and Mejía.
The reform of the PRM will not be “temporary”
With barely eight months at the head of the executive branch, the reappointment of Abinader has been cited by several industries as a possibility, but to achieve this, the PRM bylaws must be amended.
Regarding a reform, the Chairman of the Statutory Reform Commission of the Modern Revolutionary Party, Eddy Olivares, informed LISTÍN DIAIRO that he will submit a proposal to the executive management on May 1 regarding the reformulation of the 137 articles of its statutes internally, including the subject of presidential refusal.
“We are making changes to all articles, that is, the 137 articles have been amended in substance or in writing … in the case of 101 these changes will be known by the extraordinary national convention, so yes, that article is currently being discussed in this one. moments and it is the members of the convention, where the party will be represented as a whole, who will decide whether or not to approve these changes, ”said Olivares.
The political leader emphatically pointed out that the content of Article 101 is not the main reason for the reform and that most of the changes to be tabled were ready to be approved since July 2019, but because they were in the middle. from the pre-campaign, they decided to leave it until after the election.
“Abinader gets upset when they talk to him about re-election”
At a meeting last Sunday, PRM leader Franklin García stated that a reform of the political entity’s statutes is being proposed to allow for a new presidential term, but not until the next day did the party chairman and administrative minister of the Presidency, José Ignacio Paliza, said Abinader is not considering re-election.
“The president is focused on governing, to get this country out of the crisis and create jobs; there is no other project or idea that will bring us to that,” Paliza told journalists who published the National Palace, adding that he is an ‘annoying Abinader’ if someone approaches him on the subject.
Today, while in the opposition, the president of the republic has always taken positions that were inconsistent with successive presidential elections, but as this is allowed by the current constitution, the possibility is not completely closed.
And during the week just ended, he asked his party not to raise this issue for the next 2 years and to focus on the governmental tasks entrusted to him by Dominican society.