His challenges include preventing the choice of the candidate from creating division and “making peace” with voters.
The Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) arrives tomorrow at 48 years of its foundation burdened by accusations of alleged acts of corruption committed while in power and with the challenge that the choice of the presidential candidate for the elections of 2024 do not divide the organization again. The PLD also has the challenge of “making peace” with voters who, after 16 years of majority support, emigrated to other political shores.
The PLD was founded on December 15, 1973 by Professor Juan Bosch, and in almost half a century of existence it has governed for 20 years, with two presidents, Leonel Fernández and Danilo Medina. Medina is the third president that party has had and he has had to lead the most difficult stage of the organization, due to his battered image and the division with the departure of Fernández.
The president and leader of the organization, former president Danilo Medina, recently warned that they will not be able to shame him for being a PLD member, in what appears to be a response to the latest accusations of corruption that so far have affected his family and personal environment more than dome of the organization. Recently, the Political Committee of the PLD also warned that it will not “sit idly by” in the face of the progress of the corruption files reinforced by the audits of the Chamber of Accounts.
The dilemma of defending yourself
On this issue, the challenge of the PLD lies in how to defend the people of the past government against those who weigh accusations of corruption without the brand being associated with complicity or complicity in malicious acts against the State coffers. For this, the organization has an adverse social context, as there is citizen empowerment in the country and the world that requires accountability and transparency in the management of public resources.
In addition, its leader and president is the one who is most affected by the issue, since several family members, brothers and brothers-in-law, as well as his head of security have so far been the ones designated by the corruption commission in Medina’s eight-year administration. This fact makes it difficult for the opposition organization to act. Another aggravating factor is that the voice with the greatest impact on public opinion is that of Medina, but the former president has appeared erratic in his public appearances to defend the organization.
The other option for the PLD would be not to defend the persons named in the eight years of Medina’s government from corruption accusations, but historically the politician and party that travels that path are annihilated.
Another great challenge for the purple party is to regain the majority support of the electorate that it had for 16 years and lost in the 2020 elections. This process would go through a profound review of the causes that generated the electoral defeat, since the PLD’s exit from the Power did not occur in a context of economic crisis, which is the most recurrent reason why governments lose at the polls.
Presidential candidacy election
On the electoral agenda, the most important challenge for the opposition party is that the choice of the presidential candidate does not generate traumas that cause a new division.
The PLD has reported that it will advance the selection of the presidential candidate to October 2022 because it feels at a disadvantage compared to the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), which has cleared the way for the reappointment of President Luis Abinader and Fuerza del Pueblo (FP), that his candidate is Leonel Fernández.
The organization’s decision clashes with the provisions of Party Law 33/18 that candidates for popularly elected positions are chosen in October 2023 and the pre-campaign formally begins in July of that same year. But apart from this clash with the legislation, the organization has the challenge of defining through which method the consensus candidate will choose.
The head of the Legal Affairs Secretariat of the PLD, José Dantés, ruled out the open primaries for this process because it would not be legally possible. Dantés also coordinates a commission of the Political Committee that works on a consensus document with the candidates for the presidential candidacy of that organization.
So far, Abel Martínez, Francisco Domínguez Brito, Margarita Cedeño, Karen Ricardo and Maritza Hernández aspire. Of that group, Domínguez Brito would have sent a communication to the Political Committee in which he rejects the use of the polls method for choosing the candidate next year.
The Parties Law establishes various mechanisms for electing candidates such as delegate assemblies, closed primaries, and polls.
In the PLD, the body in charge of defining the election method is the Central Committee, which is made up of more than a thousand members. It is also that body that makes the candidates official.
They will make a posthumous tribute to Reinaldo
The PLD has organized various events to commemorate the 48th anniversary of its founding, among which is a posthumous tribute to the late Reinaldo Pared Pérez, general secretary ad -vitam of the PLD. Cristina Lizardo, coordinator of the events, reported that the activities will be presided over by the national leadership of the PLD headed by the former president of the Republic and that organization, Danilo Medina, as well as the secretary general, Charlie Mariotti. “At 4:30 in the afternoon the PLD leadership will gather on the esplanade of the PLD’s national headquarters and from there move to the Welcome Sandoval Great Hall to participate in the solemn act of celebration of the PLD’s 48th anniversary, which is the central act ”, informed the PLD leader. The organization also detailed that there will be activities in the provincial, municipal and sectional directorates abroad.
