SANTO DOMINGO.-A year after the municipal elections, the turncoat of mayors has ignited the fuse of the political debate.
After coming to power, the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) has sustained a constant flow of swearing in of mayors, municipal district directors, and councilors throughout the country.
One of the first sworn in was the mayoress of San Juan, Hanoi Sánchez. This list also includes Olegario Lantigua, who is mayor of the main municipality of Dajabón, a function he has held for five periods, under the acronym of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD). Others sworn in were Lucho Reyes, mayor of the Palo Verde municipality, in Montecristi; the mayor of Oviedo in Pedernales, Ramón Pérez, and the director of the district council, José Francisco Peña Gómez, César Peralta, all from the PLD.
The mayor of Luperón in Puerto Plata, Douglas Pichardo, left the PLD; his counterpart from San José de Ocoa Aneudy Ortiz Saijiun (he left the Dominican Revolutionary Party) and the directors of the municipal districts El Naranjal-Parra, Roberto Abreu and by Nizao-Las Auyamas, Frank Morfa of the PLD.
most affected PLD
As has been noted, the most affected party has been the PLD, which has motivated its interest in imposing sanctions on turncoats, in the modification made to the electoral law. Said attempts have been denied by the other political forces, based in part on Sentence 100 of 2019 issued by the Superior Electoral Tribunal, which considered it unconstitutional to prevent a person who had been nominated by an organization from appearing in the same electoral process. for other.
In the PLD they wanted this prohibition to be extended to the pre-candidates.
It was also commented on putting a stop to the flight of militants who hold a position of popular election, won with the initials of the party, which until now has not been considered in the proposed text for the electoral law and which has no constitutional basis either.
the beginnings
The swearing in of mayors in the PRM began to take place in 2021 and the mayor of the municipality of Consuelo, Juan Ignacio Vargas Padilla, former leader of the PRD; the mayor of the PLD in the municipality of Arenoso in the Duarte province, Cristian Concepción and the mayor for the municipality of Sabana Larga in San José de Ocoa, Milton Brea, the latter left the PLD.
The latest additions have been the mayors of the municipalities of Barahona, Jaquimeyes, Fundación and Villa Central, Carlos Valentín Batista Matos, Rafael Feliz (Pello) and Ana Lucía Almánzar Batista, respectively, and in Samaná, Eduardo Esteban Willy.
PLD takes action
In its meeting this Monday, the PLD Political Committee appointed a commission to determine the steps to follow in relation to the complaint of robbery of mayors motivated last year before the Central Electoral Board and recently in charge of the peledeista bench in the Chamber of Deputies.
“The compañero Francisco Javier García and the general secretary, the president of the party and the candidate established a possible route regarding the purchase of the mayors and the issue was discussed, but a kind of commission was decided to see the next steps,” he said. Charles Mariotti.
“About two months ago we have insisted on the Central Electoral Board, but the board has left it in a deadlock, it’s up to the PLD and I saw that the PRD has already spoken very harshly and we are going to revive the issue and demand with great vehemence of the board to face this issue that is going to be very harmful for Dominican democracy and for the partisan party”.
The journalists asked if the issue was going to be taken to international organizations, as announced by the campaign coordinator, Francisco Javier García, to which he reiterated that a commission has been appointed to be in charge of analyzing this issue.
Results
The PLD came to have an almost absolute control of the municipalities in its periods of government.
new peñagomistas
— Honey of power?
The oaths in the official party include former mayors, former deputies, councilors and influential personalities in the country’s communities alike. In one of their acts they said they swore in 23 former deputies.
JCE has yet to pronounce
Application. On February 17, 2022, the parties of the Dominican Liberation (PLD), Dominican Revolutionary (PRD) and Fuerza del Pueblo, requested in writing to the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to investigate the alleged use of State funds in the conquest of mayors by the ruling party.
After resuming the complaint recently, the PLD has said that the JCE has not done anything so far, although the electoral body appointed a commission made up of the director of the Specialized Directorate for Financial Control of Political Parties, Ramón Hilario Espiñeira; the director of Political Parties, Lenis García; the special assistant to the president of the JCE, Malaquías Contreras and the agency’s inspector, Landía Sofía Molina Pérez.
