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April 26th 2017

Political party and electoral reforms before Congress

In April the Dominican legislature officially began the process of reviewing bills to regulate political
parties and electoral processes. Assuming that the bills are approved, the new laws will help to
strengthen or create a new legal framework for political campaigns and elections, in addition to
establishing the related roles and procedures within political parties. The bills were submitted to a
bicameral commission in the legislature by the Junta Central Electoral (JCE, the electoral board) in
early April. On April 21st the JCE members met with the Senate commission currently assessing the
bills.

Members of civil society and smaller political parties have long stressed the need for laws to regulate parties
and elections, but a number of bills submitted from across the political spectrum have failed to get through
Congress. This time, the bills are very likely to be passed into law, as they enjoy the support of the ruling
Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), which holds a majority in both houses. Although opposition
parties have decried what they see as the likelihood that the PLD will pass laws that extend its dominance, the
regulations will still be a step forwards in terms of transparency and predictability.

Institutional weaknesses in the electoral and political system

The need to regulate the country's political parties and electoral processes has been evident for years. The
absence of regulations has contributed to a variety of institutional weaknesses, such as political patronage,
murky campaign finances, allegations of electoral fraud and the use of the public finances for electorally
advantageous purposes.

Accusations of vote-buying, clientelism and general electoral fraud are common across the political
spectrum, but few investigations have yielded results. According to the AmericasBarometer Insights series,
sponsored by the US Agency for International Development and produced by Vanderbilt University, 37% of
individuals polled in 2014 admitted either having accepted or knowing someone who had accepted a gift in
exchange for political support. The figure is the largest across the 21 countries studied. Despite these
weaknesses, the actual voting process is still considered free and largely fair by external monitors.

The country's multi-party structure has also suffered from a lack of clear and enforceable rules. Internal party
processes vary widely across organisations and are unregulated. This often results in discretionary and
opaque means of selecting party leaders and candidates, which makes it difficult for new political figures to
rise from outside the existing political establishment, resulting in entrenched elites. There is also little
difference among parties in terms of political ideology, which leads to short-term alliances being formed for
electoral gain. The lack of distinctive ideologies has also meant that the allegiance of members is often fluid,
and candidates who switch parties, locally known as transfugas, are common.

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Political party and electoral reforms before Congress http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=1085356692&Country=Do...

Campaign financing also lacks oversight, which leads to frequent allegations of corruption. The most recent
case involves Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that is embroiled in corruption investigations in
the Dominican Republic and several other Latin American countries. Odebrecht contributed to the re-election
campaign of the current president, Danilo Medina; Mr Medina has denied any impropriety. Independent of
financing, whichever party is in power tends to enjoy a campaign advantage over the opposition, owing to a
tendency to harness the public finances for electorally beneficial spending and projects.

Prolonged dominance of ruling party has weakened transparency

Mr Medina's re-election in 2016 means that when his term ends in 2020, the PLD will have held the
presidency for 16 consecutive years. In addition, the party holds comfortable majorities in both houses of
Congress and most regional governments. Critics say that checks and balances have been eroded, and accuse
the PLD of holding sway with the judiciary, having appointed a large number of judges.

In the 2016 general elections, the first in which polls for the presidential, legislative and municipal levels
were conducted simultaneously since 1994, the PLD took 62% of the votes. The elections highlighted a trend
towards ideological fluidity and deal-making among the political class. A variety of smaller parties came
under the PLD umbrella by backing the PLD rather than presenting presidential or vice-presidential
candidates. Of these, the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) stands out, as it had previously been a
major political force (its candidate in the 2012 election had received 47% of the vote). This has resulted in a
lack of strong, organised opposition and left the PLD as the only viable national party, seconded only by the
the Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM), a spin-off from the PRD.

Campaign spending and financing to be supervised

The bills introduce some welcome changes to the regulations of political parties, including those regarding
their creation, registration and dissolution, as well as imposing a 33% quota for the participation of women in
party leaderships. Party primaries, which are currently held by each party according to internal norms, are to
abide by uniform requirements and processes, while general guidelines for campaigns will cover such aspects
as advertisements and other political propaganda. Furthermore, the legislation establishes control
mechanisms and reporting requirements to the JCE with regards to the sources and use of campaign funds,
including the direct public funding that is given to all parties by the JCE for every electoral period.

The current system of preferential block voting, which has been in place since 2013, will remain. Under this
system, voters must cast their votes along party lines, meaning that their chosen candidates for Congress,
Senate and the presidency must belong to the same party. This method has been widely criticised, especially
by the smaller parties, which lack a national presence and worry that it promotes alliances based on access
and power, rather than on policy or ideology.

Process could tip the scales in favour of ruling party

Opposing parties have raised concerns about the bills being "tailored" to the PLD's wishes, as both were
authored by the JCE, which is appointed by the Senate, where the PLD has 28 out of 32 seats. Opposition
political parties requested that the bills be discussed in a multi-party setting to ensure that their opinions were
reflected in the resulting law. This, according to the opposition, cannot happen in the context of a legislature
where the PLD has an overwhelming majority. This contention was dismissed by senior PLD leadership in
both the lower and upper houses of the legislature. The JCE declared that all relevant stakeholders had
participated in the process, and that it is open to changes to the current bills in order to reflect a consensus.

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Political party and electoral reforms before Congress http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=1085356692&Country=Do...

If approved, clear and objective set of rules could help to improve the functioning of the political party
system and electoral transparency. It would also strengthen the internal functioning of all parties, and could
boost the cohesiveness and effectiveness of opposition parties going forward. However, a consensus on the
details of the law will be hard to reach and, given the PLD's legislative majority, the final version is likely to
reflect the party's priorities.

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