The president of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Miguel Vargas Maldonado, stated that “now” he wants to modify the Constitution to change the 50+1 rule “to save others.”
The constitutional reform of 1994 establishes that for a Presidential candidate to hold that position in the first round, he must obtain 50 percent plus one vote as a result in the elections.
“Now they want to change (the 50+1) to save others, it seems,” Vargas Maldonado said yesterday, smiling, when journalists pointed out that this change to the Magna Carta was to harm the presidential candidacy of José Francisco Peña Gómez.
“We categorically reject any constitutional reform initiative to promulgate a reelection process,” said the PRD leader, after carrying a floral offering at the party’s national house in commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of the founding of said party organization.
Vargas Maldonado argued that proposing to modify the Constitution to address that point, “the first thing it reflects is a sign of weakness on the part of the Government and disruption of what are the constitutional aspects established to date that have been governed for the last 20 years” .
On her side, Peggy Cabral, widow of José Francisco Peña Gómez, acknowledged that applying the 50+1 was with the intention of frustrating the presidency of the late leader. “I think so,” said the PRD leader.
The politicians’ reactions occur after Milagros Ortiz Bosch’s proposal to reduce the percentage necessary to win the Presidency in the first round, which in the Dominican case is 50% plus one vote.
PRD will work “without commitment to any other political force”
Miguel Vargas Maldonado urged Dominicans to work hard to overcome the challenges, challenges and opportunities that 2022 presents and invited the PRD militancy to take advantage of this year to work on strengthening the party “without commitment to any other political force” outside the PRD and the Dominican people.
“We must take advantage of this year 2022 to work on this process that we have undertaken, to strengthen the PRD without commitment to any other political force that is not with our party and with the Dominican people,” said Vargas Maldonado when pronouncing the central words of the commemoration act. , which started at 11:00 in the morning. He was accompanied by Peggy Cabral, Yanet Camilo and other militants.
Date on which the PRD commemorates birth
Miguel Vargas Maldonado explained that they celebrate the establishment of the party on January 21 (and not July 5) because “that is the date of its foundation” in Villa de El Cano: a neighborhood that belongs to Havana, Cuba, and this is already more than debated”. In his speech he recalled Juan Bosch, Ángel Miolán, Cotubanamá Henríquez and Juan Isidro Jiménez Grullón as some of the illustrious Dominicans who founded the political organization.
