Race against the clock to approve the controversial electoral policy in a pre election year in the Dominican Republic
With a couple of days remaining for the closure of the current congress, representatives in a special commission race against the clock to discuss the new and controversial electoral policy. The president of the Central Electoral Board declared that there will only be time to vote on the policy if the closure date, due on the 12th of January, is extended. The president of the special commission sustained the claim that the policy will not be ready before the closure as he deemed it to be “conflictive” with “many discussion and observations being made”.
The main issue surrounding the policy is the spending and financing cap. The Institutionality and Justice foundation claimed that the competencies of the Central Electoral Board should be reviewed as the spending caps need to be lowered in order to establish control in a tool used by the most powerful sectors to influence Dominican Republic’s democracy. Moreover the foundation has also proposed a sanctions regime which is sufficiently harsh to deter the use of resources above the spending caps established. Regardless, if the policy is modified, it will have to go back to the Senate who has already approved it without further modifications. Thus, the first weeks of 2023 will determine whether there will be an electoral policy deadlock in congress, a year before the 2024 presidential elections are deemed to occur.
Thinking about Dominican Republic’s electoral future:
As the Senate had already approved the policy without any modifications, any changes made will need to be reviewed again by the senators. Hence, the process may take even more time than estimated. Moreover, the Central Electoral Board is concerned that the senate is unwilling to discuss the changes suggested which contemplate urgent and significant issues for the electoral regime. Furthermore, without an electoral policy to guide political parties, the countdown to the 2024 presidential elections heads to a rocky start.
The objective of the proposed changes to the policy is to decrease the impact of private stakeholders' interests in the electoral process of the country. Therefore, the current pushback from representatives and senators to delay or reject the policy shows the extent to which private interests are involved in the electoral process.