NewsWhore
01-12-2011, 03:10 PM
In a column in today's Hoy and in her blog, political commentator Rosario Espinal states that all the roads leading to President Leonel Fernandez's PLD presidential candidacy in 2012 are full of thorny obstacles. She says there are only two ways for him to "legally" be the candidate: by reforming the Constitution, as former President Hipolito Mejia did also using his congressional majority in 2004, or by reinterpreting the new Constitution.
She uses quotation marks round the word "legally" because while a reform would be legal, it would not be legitimate because the new Constitution was promoted and agreed on by President Leonel Fernandez himself. "To promote the reform of his own Constitution directly or indirectly would doubly delegitimize it: he would be changing what he himself promoted seeking to benefit himself."
Art. 49 in the previous 2002 Constitution banned Fernandez from running for office ever again. The 2010 Constitution now allows non-consecutive unlimited re-election.
Espinal says that seeking recourse through the to-be-created Constitution Court is even less legitimate. She says that the new court would be a brand new institution and needs time to validate itself as an instance of legality within Dominican society. "Reviewing a topic controversial as re-election as one of its first tasks would be a way of discrediting it from the start if it rules in his favor," she comments.
"On the other hand, President Fernandez has great political power in the Congress and would have in the future Constitutional Court, so that all that they rule on in his favor will be marked by the subordination of those two institutions to his will," she writes.
She observes that neither the collecting of signatures in favor of a Fernandez pre-candidacy, nor the referendum are legal mechanisms to modify the Constitution. "They are simply ways of keeping the idea of a possible re-election alive, as are the displays of support that the President receives in his outings," she writes.
She foresees two major problems ahead if the move to appoint Fernandez as the PLD candidate continues:
"The conditions would be given for the formation of an anti-reelection front based on the violation of the Constitution and the erosion of credibility that the government is already experiencing. The institutional impulse to benefit Fernandez would surely become the last straw for the growing loss of political capital by the administration affected by corruption scandals. The media would be divided between those for and against re-election, and the PRD would capitalize on this by attracting voters who otherwise would not favor that party.
Secondly, she comments that a Fernandez candidacy would create internal problems in the DR. She speculates that if Fernandez does not run but supports a candidate other than pre-candidate Danilo Medina, he would at least be promoting other politicians in the party, even if there are internal disputes.
"By betting on running again, or letting others to promote his candidacy openly, Fernandez is not only promoting the old Dominican traditional and individualist caudillo model, but also a greater level of institutional weakening in his party. She warns that as more time passes, it will be more difficult for the PLD to position an alternative candidate.
She says that the prudent and democratic option for the President would be to decline his aspiration to be the candidate, because it does not have constitutional legitimacy, and because it could be very negative for his government and the party.
http://rosarioespinal.wordpress.com/
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)
She uses quotation marks round the word "legally" because while a reform would be legal, it would not be legitimate because the new Constitution was promoted and agreed on by President Leonel Fernandez himself. "To promote the reform of his own Constitution directly or indirectly would doubly delegitimize it: he would be changing what he himself promoted seeking to benefit himself."
Art. 49 in the previous 2002 Constitution banned Fernandez from running for office ever again. The 2010 Constitution now allows non-consecutive unlimited re-election.
Espinal says that seeking recourse through the to-be-created Constitution Court is even less legitimate. She says that the new court would be a brand new institution and needs time to validate itself as an instance of legality within Dominican society. "Reviewing a topic controversial as re-election as one of its first tasks would be a way of discrediting it from the start if it rules in his favor," she comments.
"On the other hand, President Fernandez has great political power in the Congress and would have in the future Constitutional Court, so that all that they rule on in his favor will be marked by the subordination of those two institutions to his will," she writes.
She observes that neither the collecting of signatures in favor of a Fernandez pre-candidacy, nor the referendum are legal mechanisms to modify the Constitution. "They are simply ways of keeping the idea of a possible re-election alive, as are the displays of support that the President receives in his outings," she writes.
She foresees two major problems ahead if the move to appoint Fernandez as the PLD candidate continues:
"The conditions would be given for the formation of an anti-reelection front based on the violation of the Constitution and the erosion of credibility that the government is already experiencing. The institutional impulse to benefit Fernandez would surely become the last straw for the growing loss of political capital by the administration affected by corruption scandals. The media would be divided between those for and against re-election, and the PRD would capitalize on this by attracting voters who otherwise would not favor that party.
Secondly, she comments that a Fernandez candidacy would create internal problems in the DR. She speculates that if Fernandez does not run but supports a candidate other than pre-candidate Danilo Medina, he would at least be promoting other politicians in the party, even if there are internal disputes.
"By betting on running again, or letting others to promote his candidacy openly, Fernandez is not only promoting the old Dominican traditional and individualist caudillo model, but also a greater level of institutional weakening in his party. She warns that as more time passes, it will be more difficult for the PLD to position an alternative candidate.
She says that the prudent and democratic option for the President would be to decline his aspiration to be the candidate, because it does not have constitutional legitimacy, and because it could be very negative for his government and the party.
http://rosarioespinal.wordpress.com/
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)