He says reform responds to a public outcry
Santo Domingo.- The president of the Dominican Alliance against Corruption (ADOCCO), Julio César de la Rosa, welcomed and expressed his full identification with the constitutional reform proposal made by the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, considering that the points raised respond to a public outcry and come to resolve several “entanglements” such as the holding of separate elections and the excessive number of deputies that the country has.
Asked by journalists about the matter, De la Rosa said: “Therefore, we as an institution support this proposal for constitutional reform because it will respond to what has been a demand of Dominican society, which is the unification of elections.”
He pointed out that there have been no significant achievements in separating the presidential elections from the municipal elections, with both processes being held in the same year and just three months apart, which entails unnecessary expenditure.
He said that the logistics that can be set up for the municipal elections can be perfectly the same as for the general and congressional elections, “and that is why we welcome this initiative.”
He said that the reduction of the Chamber of Deputies has also been a clamor from a large part of society. He pointed out that compared to other nations that demographically have a larger number of citizens, the Dominican Republic has many more deputies, which currently total 190.
He said that he is in favor of defining legislative representation taking into consideration that each province has a provincial representative who is the senator, and two representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, one rural and one urban “and that, based on the degree of the province, the number of deputies can be increased, but that it should never exceed 5 deputies,” he said.
“I don’t think anyone will oppose this reform because I don’t think there is a single Dominican in the country who doesn’t want the elections to be unified, as well as reducing the number of deputies. And not to mention the appointment of the Attorney General of the Republic by a body with the legal capacity of the National Council of the Judiciary and, above all, ending this threat of modifying the Constitution for presidential re-election beyond what the Constitution itself establishes,” he said.
Independence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office
The president of Adocco described it as a historic event that a president should give up a prerogative such as the appointment of the Attorney General of the Republic and henceforth hand it over to a body such as the National Council of the Judiciary.
He also considered that the fact that the Constitution specifies that the attorney general cannot be removed until the end of the period for which he was appointed gives the Attorney General greater independence and strength, and that this can only occur when he has committed offenses that could lead to impeachment.
Regarding the protection that President Luis Abinader seeks to give to the Constitution to eradicate once and for all presidential reelection beyond two consecutive terms and never again, De la Rosa favorably considered the introduction of this type of “stone clause”, that is, one that cannot be reformed later.
He stated that, once the Constitution was modified, President Luis Abinader would have the right to run for a third term because the Magna Carta that elected him would no longer be the same.
“However, he has established that he will renounce that. And I believe and identify with including as a stone clause the fact that the Constitution, just as it cannot be modified to change the system of Government, it cannot be modified in relation to the presidential term, which can be two consecutive terms and never ever,” he indicated.
De la Rosa welcomed the process of dialogue and consultation that the Executive Branch is developing with a view to ensuring that the final proposal to be presented to the National Congress on August 16 is based on consensus.
“In a democratic society like ours, it is evident that the various sectors that influence national life must be given a say, mainly the political class. And I believe that this would give greater strength to this proposed constitutional reform because it would have the consensus of all sectors,” he concluded.
