With barely two days to go before the end of this ordinary legislature, after the partial break for the Christmas and New Year festivities, the National Congressespecially the Chamber of Deputies, restarts its routine work with the celebration of three ordinary sessions this week and with important pending tasks to be approved, among them, the bills for the Electoral Regime, Public Trust and the one that would authorize the Executive Power to issue and place public debt for up to a maximum amount of 363 thousand 257.8 million pesos or its equivalent in foreign currency.
The deputies are called to meet today, tomorrow and next Thursday. While the Senate, which did take an almost total recess from legislative and administrative work, will also meet today, at 2 pm.
Yesterday, the deputies members of the special commission, which is studying the Electoral Regime bill, met in an extraordinary way and read the piece up to article 240 and intend to continue reading the remaining 86 articles on Tuesday to complete the reading of the 326 articles of the piece. He said that they would then determine the work methodology to follow.
Elías Wessin Chávez, the president of that commission, declared that, once the first phase of the process had been exhausted, they would study the observations made to the piece by the Central Electoral Board (JCE), the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the Economic and Social Council ( CES), the Institutionality and Justice Foundation, Citizen Participation and political parties. He recalled that the most controversial points are the cap on campaign spending and the financial reports that political parties must present. He said they could call public hearings.
The deputy and member of the political committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Gustavo Sánchez, reiterated that he did not understand the interest of “boiling” the project of the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime in 10 days when the Senate took eight months in that process. He specified that disagreements must be agreed upon by the leadership of the political parties. He revealed that the PLD political committee will meet today to evaluate the points that have not reached consensus on this initiative.
PRM instructs
Yesterday, the president of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), José Ignacio Paliza, reported that his party instructed its congressmen to build the greatest possible consensus with the JCE and the other political parties to approve the Electoral Regime Law project. “We have instructed our benches, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies, but above all in the Chamber of Deputies, where the piece rests, so that the greatest possible consensus can be built with the Central Electoral Board and all the parties of the system in relation to this law”, he pointed out. He said that the PRM wants that law to be approved, that the corresponding improvements can be achieved and that this occurs before the next upcoming electoral process, in order to regulate it. If it is not approved, the piece would expire in the present ordinary legislature, which ends this Thursday, January 12.
