NewsWhore
05-17-2010, 02:50 PM
Business groups have expressed their surprise and disagreement with the government's last-minute decision to declare Saturday, Sunday and Monday till noon as official holidays. Pedro Perez, president of the national association of shopping malls, said the decision could have counter-productive effects on the economy.
"Instead of reducing the level of abstention, this could increase because many people may decide to take the long weekend off," he said. "What we are sure about is that it will have a negative impact on economic activity and on government tax collections. We would like to know if there are so many cases of people who have to leave their cities to vote to justify the losses this measure will mean," he complained.
In fact, most large stores remained open on Saturday. Stores that normally open on Sunday closed for half the day. Many restaurants chose to open on Sunday afternoon.
The decision primarily affected manufacturing processes.
The president of the Dominican Republic Association of Industries (AIRD), Manuel Diez Cabral said that, "productive activities don't need to be paralyzed in order to have elections". He said that the nation needed to move ahead and not stay behind in the days when elections were traumatic processes. "We think it was unnecessary for the government to declare holidays for the 15, 16 and 17 until noon," he said. He added that this contradicted the new Constitution that had fixed the date of the election for Sunday to avoid interrupting the normal flow of activities, but the government does the contrary.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)
"Instead of reducing the level of abstention, this could increase because many people may decide to take the long weekend off," he said. "What we are sure about is that it will have a negative impact on economic activity and on government tax collections. We would like to know if there are so many cases of people who have to leave their cities to vote to justify the losses this measure will mean," he complained.
In fact, most large stores remained open on Saturday. Stores that normally open on Sunday closed for half the day. Many restaurants chose to open on Sunday afternoon.
The decision primarily affected manufacturing processes.
The president of the Dominican Republic Association of Industries (AIRD), Manuel Diez Cabral said that, "productive activities don't need to be paralyzed in order to have elections". He said that the nation needed to move ahead and not stay behind in the days when elections were traumatic processes. "We think it was unnecessary for the government to declare holidays for the 15, 16 and 17 until noon," he said. He added that this contradicted the new Constitution that had fixed the date of the election for Sunday to avoid interrupting the normal flow of activities, but the government does the contrary.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#4)