Reform work goes slow

[NewsWhore]

The Revisory Assembly delegates' desire to participate, sometimes with little to say, prolonged the discussions during the second day of the assembly where only 6 of more than 60 agenda items were heard. Also allowing for the passage of the first six articles of the Constitution was the meeting that took place between President Fernandez and the leading members of the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC). The PRSC supported four of the official proposals based on an agreement that was reached during this meeting. The assembly members left things as they were in the current Constitution where Article 1 that deals with the Nation, its sovereignty and its government, and they rejected a proposal from the Executive that said "Of the Nation, Of the State and of its Fundamental Principles." They also rejected the Executive's proposal for Article 1 of the constitutional modification and reaffirmed the current version that says "The Dominican people constitute a nation organized in a Free and Independent State, with the name of the Dominican Republic." A new Article 2 was approved after one reading of the government's proposal, and will now read, "Sovereignty resides exclusively in the people, from whom come all the state powers. The people exercise sovereignty by means of their representatives or in a direct manner, in the terms established in this Constitution and the laws". Also approved was "The Constitution is founded on the unbreakable union of the Dominican Nation, common homeland of all Dominicans," which is now Article 5. Moreover, that "All the bodies that carry out public responsibilities are subject to the Constitution, the supreme and fundamental norm of public order. All the people. All laws, decrees, resolutions, regulations or acts that are contrary to the Constitution are null and void." Both proposals from the Executive Branch were presented by assembly vice president Julio Cesar Valentin. Everything was going well until the second chapter, "On the Social and Democratic State of Law" when four PLD members voted against the proposal, which led to the rejection of the motion, and two of them alleged that the control used to vote had fallen down. This set off a big argument between PRD and PLD members, who asked for a recount. The resulting upheaval included insults and one PRD assembly member, Manuel Sanchez, even threw down his microphone in protest. But calm was later restored, with the excuses and explanations as usual. The issue remained on the table and will be heard again in this afternoon's session. Another disagreeable note that bothered the PRD delegation was one that was set forth by veteran legislator Luis Jose Gonzalez Sanchez when he recommended the PRD delegates to "mind their (Bingo) cards", a reference to a 1994 incident in which the PRD delegates walked out of the constitutional reform discussions, and the 50% plus one requirement to win the presidential elections was passed, which prevented Jose Francisco Pena Gomez from winning the election that year.

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