Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Chamber of Deputies approved this Tuesday the law that declares the “need” for a reform to the Constitution to, among other points, place impediments to possible modifications aimed at changing the current presidential election model.
The text was approved last week by the Senate of the Republic, so the initiative now goes to the Executive Branch, where its promulgation is expected, since it was the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, who submitted the reforms.
Opposition legislators left the chamber at the time of the vote, maintaining that the reform is unnecessary at this time.
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The Executive Branch submitted the bill with the purpose of “guaranteeing stability over time to the constitutional text and especially to the current presidential election model, to prevent future modifications from affecting it, through the establishment of a system of padlocks and new general rules.
Another point to be discussed will be the review of the structure and powers of the National Council of the Judiciary (CNM) which, headed by the President of the Republic, elects members of courts such as the Constitutional Court (TC) and the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ).
In addition, constitutionally consolidate the independence of the Public Ministry, specialize its functions, establish a new form of designation and add requirements to be attorney general of the Republic.
The modification of the Constitution, which must be discussed jointly by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies constituted as the National Review Assembly, also proposes the unification of municipal elections with presidential and congressional elections, starting in 2032.
The number of deputies will also be reduced from 190 to 170, as agreed by the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), and the Office of the Attorney General of the Public Administration will be created as a dependency of the Executive Branch.
The Dominican Constitution establishes that a person can be elected to the Presidency for two consecutive terms, in the event that he or she achieves re-election, as Abinader did.
The ruler stressed that he seeks, at this point, to prevent the person who occupies the Executive from attempting to modify the Magna Carta to “eternalize” himself in power.
Abinader, re-elected president in the May elections, has defended the modifications, the first of a series of reforms that he has proposed carrying out in the country, such as tax, labor, and social security.
