DR: Evil Intentions Against Elections says Senate President

May 8, 2024 Hour: 1:05 pm

On Wednesday, the president of the Senate of the Dominican Republic, Ricardo de los Santos, said that there is an “unhealthy intention” to discredit the general elections on 19 May, when the new president of the country will be elected until 2028.

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De los Santos urged the majority opposition parties to be more responsible with their statements, reported Diario Libre.

The senator said that the attacks were due to the results of last February’s municipal elections, in which the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) won the majority of municipalities against the candidates of the Rescue the DR Alliance (Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) and People’s Force (FP).

The day before, the PLD block of deputies presented a dossier to the Electoral Crimes Ombudsman’s Office in an attempt to prove that the government allegedly granted solidarity pensions to benefit itself in the 19 May elections.

El presidente del Senado, Ricardo de los Santos, hizo un llamado a la sociedad para que acudan a las urnas a cumplir su deber de ejercer su derecho al voto. #elavance #ricardodelossantos pic.twitter.com/vqIw0URia9

— El Avance Media (@elavancemedia)
May 7, 2024

The text reads,

The president of the Senate, Ricardo de los Santos, called on society to go to the polls to fulfill their duty to exercise their right to vote.

“With political and electoral purposes, the president (Luis Abinader) uses public resources with the delivery of these fraudulent pensions to pay favours to members of his party and to cover economic commitments with leaders of other political groups,” alleged PLD spokesman in the Chamber of Deputies, Luis Henríquez.

Henríquez said the Public Prosecutor’s Office “cannot turn its back” to what he described as “an electoral crime”.

On the other hand, the main opposition parties are insisting before the Central Electoral Board (JCE) on the dismissal of the director of the Electoral Military Police, Army Major General Juan José Otaño Jiménez.

They say that on 11 March they submitted to the electoral body what they called the “Pliego de Garantias para la Transparencia de las Elecciones del domingo 19 de mayo” and have received no response to many of the issues raised.

The Alianza Rescate RD maintains that Otaño Jiménez is responsible “for the irregularities in the elections in the municipality of Dajabón and for the unbalanced and biased appointments of polling station officials in many electoral boards”.

Faced with these allegations, legislators from the ruling party insist that the opposition parties are only seeking to boycott the presidential and congressional elections on the 19th, to which more than eight million Dominicans are called.