The Institutionality and Justice Foundation (Finjus) today advocated for the elimination of Dominican legislative representation in the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) and the 1,300 alternate councilors in the country.
Its executive vice president, Servio Tulio Castaños Guzmán, believes that, as proposed in the constitutional reform on the reduction of deputies, the issue of deputies to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen) must also be reconsidered, since in his opinion that has not served any purpose.
“What purpose has that served?” the Finjus executive asked.
The Dominican Republic has 20 deputies and 20 substitutes in the Parlacen.
Remove substitutes
The jurist also suggested that this constitutional reform should be used as an opportunity to reduce the number of alternate councillors, which exceeds 1,300. “We are going to remove that which is a source of waste.”
Constitution padlock
Castaños Guzmán agrees with the blocking of the Constitution in relation to reelection and pointed out that this issue has generated problems for political parties to the point of dividing them, as is the case of the Reformist Party, the PRD and the PLD.
Reduction of deputies
He pointed out that the deputies do not end up representing the people, but rather the political parties, which is why he is in favour of reducing their membership, as proposed by the Executive Branch.
For the constitutionalist, the central problem in the Chamber of Deputies is that of governability, which makes it difficult to build consensus; something that does not occur in the Senate of the Republic.
In this regard, the lawyer argues that in a constitutional reform process the political component prevails more than the legal one.
“Our deputies do not end up representing us, we who elect them; they end up representing the political parties, and the Dominican people know this, which is why the population agrees with this reduction,” said Castaños.
Finjus’ Executive Vice President made his statements when he was interviewed this morning on the Hoy Mismo program, which is broadcast on Color Visión, channel 9.
Castaños Guzmán said that the proposal to reduce the number of deputies has pleased the people, “although politically the President is paying a price because, at the end of the day, he is the one who has the most deputies and is the one who will suffer the most, eventually, from the consequences of this reduction from a political point of view.”
