With the abstention of 10 and the absence of one Senator, they approve reform report
The second reading will be tomorrow. It will then go to the lower chamber
Argénida Romero
SD. The 21 hands raised, of the 31 Senators present yesterday at the session of the Upper Chamber, gave their approval yesterday in the first reading of the legislative proposal which declares the need to reform the Constitution of the Republic in its article 124, in order to reintroduce the presidential reelection for a consecutive period and never again.
The 10 hands that were not raised were those of the Senators Sonia Mateo, Felix Bautista, Aristides Victoria Yeb, Prim Pujals, Dionis Sanchez, José Rafael Vargas, Carlos Castillo, Amarilis Santana, Francis Vargas, and José Maria Sosa. One Senator was absent: Manuel Antonio Paula.
The voting was preceded by the reading of the favorable report which was submitted by the special commission which studied the proposal, chaired by Reinaldo Pared Perez, and by eight of the nine legislators on the commission. Senator Victoria Yeb, who did not sign the document, read a dissenting report.
In his reasoning, Victoria Yeb talked about the consensus which was done for the constitutional reform of 2010, and the necessity that there should be a similar process which supports another reform. "The most convenient thing is that the constitutional order now in force be respected."
Then, Pared Perez (National District) took his turn in order to point out that the report by Victoria Yeb had not been submitted to the special commission, and he asked that its recognition in the order of the day should be included together with the dossier of the special commission.
Some 15 minutes before the approval of the legislative proposal, submitted for this purpose at 6:00 p.m., 10 Senators, the same ones that abstained from voting in favor of the initiative, favored the dissenting report by Victoria Yeb. The rest of the Senators did not vote, so that it remained unapproved.
At the moment in which the Senate President, Cristina Lizardo, issued the call to vote on the proposal for the reform, she was interrupted by a petition to speak from Amable Aristy Castro.
"Today I want to defend Doctor (Joaquin) Balaguer," he said. Aristy Castro recalled that, both the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), as well as other opposition parties criticized for years the defense of reelection of the deceased former President. "Today I will vote with both hands raised." And he did so.
Immediately Senator Edis Mateo Vasquez (Barahona) appealed to the unity of the PLD before the "apparent internal struggle" created by the decision of the Political Committee of this party to support reelection, and he indicated that it was the internal struggles which removed the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) from government.
After the voting, the session ended, and was convened to session again tomorrow, Thursday, at 10:00 a.m., when they will deal with the proposal in a second reading in order to send it to the Chamber of Deputies.
Inappropriate
In statements to the reporters, Reinaldo Pared Perez caledl the proposal for a referendum suggested last Monday night by the president of the PLD, Leonel Fernandez "inappropriate".
In his judgment, in order to do this they would have to modify articles 270, 271, 210 and 279 of the Constitution and convert the legislative proposal into a constitutional law, but since the proposal as submitted is ordinary and so it does not need a referendum.
He reiterated that the PLD legislators that voted in favor reaffirmed their respect for the decisions of the Political Committee. Questioned regarding the possible sanction for the dissidents, he said they will have to wait on the organic instances. "Each person has to assume his consequences," he pointed out.
The 10 hands that were not raised were those of the Senators Sonia Mateo, Felix Bautista, Aristides Victoria Yeb, Prim Pujals, Dionis Sanchez, José Rafael Vargas, Carlos Castillo, Amarilis Santana, Francis Vargas, and José Maria Sosa. One Senator was absent: Manuel Antonio Paula.
The voting was preceded by the reading of the favorable report which was submitted by the special commission which studied the proposal, chaired by Reinaldo Pared Perez, and by eight of the nine legislators on the commission. Senator Victoria Yeb, who did not sign the document, read a dissenting report.
In his reasoning, Victoria Yeb talked about the consensus which was done for the constitutional reform of 2010, and the necessity that there should be a similar process which supports another reform. "The most convenient thing is that the constitutional order now in force be respected."
Then, Pared Perez (National District) took his turn in order to point out that the report by Victoria Yeb had not been submitted to the special commission, and he asked that its recognition in the order of the day should be included together with the dossier of the special commission.
Some 15 minutes before the approval of the legislative proposal, submitted for this purpose at 6:00 p.m., 10 Senators, the same ones that abstained from voting in favor of the initiative, favored the dissenting report by Victoria Yeb. The rest of the Senators did not vote, so that it remained unapproved.
At the moment in which the Senate President, Cristina Lizardo, issued the call to vote on the proposal for the reform, she was interrupted by a petition to speak from Amable Aristy Castro.
"Today I want to defend Doctor (Joaquin) Balaguer," he said. Aristy Castro recalled that, both the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), as well as other opposition parties criticized for years the defense of reelection of the deceased former President. "Today I will vote with both hands raised." And he did so.
Immediately Senator Edis Mateo Vasquez (Barahona) appealed to the unity of the PLD before the "apparent internal struggle" created by the decision of the Political Committee of this party to support reelection, and he indicated that it was the internal struggles which removed the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) from government.
After the voting, the session ended, and was convened to session again tomorrow, Thursday, at 10:00 a.m., when they will deal with the proposal in a second reading in order to send it to the Chamber of Deputies.
Inappropriate
In statements to the reporters, Reinaldo Pared Perez caledl the proposal for a referendum suggested last Monday night by the president of the PLD, Leonel Fernandez "inappropriate".
In his judgment, in order to do this they would have to modify articles 270, 271, 210 and 279 of the Constitution and convert the legislative proposal into a constitutional law, but since the proposal as submitted is ordinary and so it does not need a referendum.
He reiterated that the PLD legislators that voted in favor reaffirmed their respect for the decisions of the Political Committee. Questioned regarding the possible sanction for the dissidents, he said they will have to wait on the organic instances. "Each person has to assume his consequences," he pointed out.
Argénida Romero
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