Around seven in the morning next Sunday, just a week away, the different polling stations will begin to receive those registered in the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) to start their closed primaries.
In this internal tournament, the Perremeistas will vote mostly to decide who will be their representatives in the municipal councils and directorates since all the legislative positions (senatorial and deputations) were chosen by another modality or reserved, Just like most mayors.
However, three key candidates will still be decided in the electoral tournament on October 1.
On the one hand, there is the presidential candidacy, where the current president, Luis Abinader, will measure forces against Delia Josefina Ortiz, Ramón Alburquerque and Guido Gómez Mazara.
The advantage lies with the president, who this weekend was in the southern region promoting his pre-candidacy in search of re-election and a second consecutive term of government. Abinader, until now, has been the only one of the four pre-candidates to lead the presidential proposal of the ruling party in May 2024.
The head of state also has the support of the party’s senior staff, who have been in charge of highlighting his government’s work and promoting surveys where he is exceptionally advantaged to win in the first round of elections.
Concerning Alburquerque and Guido Gómez Mazara, both have used the discourse of grassroots discontent with their participation in the decisions of the PRM leadership. However, none seem to have more significant opportunities to displace the mandatory next Sunday.
The mayor’s office of SDE
The candidates for the Santo Domingo Este city council are the current mayor, Manuel Jiménez; the deputy, Bertico Santana; the former director of the Dominican Postal Institute (Inposdom) and president of that political organization in that municipality, Adam Peguero; and the general coordinator of the Family Cabinet . of the Executive Branch and former candidate for the same position, Dio Astacio.
Jiménez repeats his aspirations, although his management as head of the Santo Domingo Este city council has been full of criticism and questions, mainly due to the lack of garbage collection service holes in the streets, among other problems, he made known at the beginning of this year that aims for four more years in front of the Mayor’s Office and thus continue seeking to direct the destinies of that district.
The current trustee has repeated that he is “confident in his popularity in the municipality he leads,” pointing out that the “management of public spaces, transparency, investment in garbage collection and efficient collection of arbitrations are key to winning.” “Once again, other elections.”
For his part, Peguero acquired the management of Inposdom for just over a year until it was suspended after the Ombudsman, Pablo Ulloa, denounced the alleged mass cancellation of collaborators who were not paid benefits and for the refusal. Of the official to offer the required information, although the Public Ministry later archived the case.
However, despite this, he managed to retain his position as president of the ruling party in that municipality.
At the same time, Astacio seeks to have better luck than he had in the electoral tournament when he led the electoral proposal of the Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party (PQDC).
“The city of Santo Domingo must be ordered; we do not have an order there; you do not know what the center of the city is, what the center of the city should be, you do not know where it is,” explained the pastor who is also In addition, he was the executive director of the Executive Directorate of the Presidential Management Council created by President Luis Abinader on September 29, 2021.
Santana, who currently serves as a deputy, has the support of former degree director Mérido Torres and former legislator Robert Arias.
By Santo Domingo Oeste
The current trustee, José Andújar, will compete for the Santo Domingo Oeste city council; the former mayor, Francisco Peña; the deputy, Elías Báez and the perremeista leader, José Moya, who is the general secretary of the PRM in that municipality.
Andújar, who occupies the council, has received a lot of criticism from his management due to the holes in the streets, the sewage problems and the inefficiency in garbage collection. In contrast, Peña is running again after losing the elections for the same elective position in 2020.
The former trustee received the city council from 2002 to 2010 and then from 2016 to 2020. In between, his son Francis was the trustee for six years.
Moya has stated in several interviews that the feeling of the majority within the PRM is to favor his proposal, highlighting that of the 27 zones, it has 17 presidents and 14 general secretaries.
“We went to a process in November of last year aspiring to the general secretary of the party and we won with 70%. We achieved 100 of a total of 149 votes,” Moya revealed.
By surveys
Another 32 mayoralties were reserved by the PRM, among them that of the National District, while polls will decide the remaining 124.
The ruling party’s National Commission for Internal Elections (CNEI) reported that fieldwork throughout the national territory began in mid-August and concluded on September 12.
The organization specified that after October 3, it will call the pre-candidates who participated in this internal process to report the results of the surveys in each of the territorial boundaries.
They clarified that no pre-candidate has access to the results of the surveys and consequently cannot be declared the winner of the process since, on September 12, the polling firms began their work of tabulating the information, organizing the interviews, analyzing, cross-referencing and weighting of the results to be able to deliver the corresponding reports to the CNEI.
The CNEI indicated that three of the most prestigious survey firms at the national level were selected to conduct field surveys throughout the national territory.
Article 46 of Law 33-18 states that if the political parties decide to choose their candidates for popular election through the primary modality, they will do so by the first Sunday of October of the pre-electoral year. For the other modalities, it will do so. They will do so by the last Sunday of the same month of the pre-election year.
The cost
Printing the ballots and other electoral materials to be used in the primaries on Sunday, October 1, will cost the Central Electoral Board (JCE) a total of RD$15,100,000.
According to an emergency tender carried out by the electoral body, where the company that has been awarded has not yet been announced, the budgetary action indicates that a total of RD$15,100,000 in the printing of 3,089,689 ballots for the presidential level, 407,899 for the mayoralties and council offices 2,531,789 voting ballots.
In addition to 633,755 ballots to monopolize the pre-candidates to occupy the municipal addresses and 633,759 for the members.
Printing the ballots and other electoral materials to be used in the primaries on Sunday, October 1, will cost the Central Electoral Board (JCE) a total of RD$15,100,000.
According to an emergency tender carried out by the electoral body, where the company that has been awarded has not yet been announced, the budgetary action indicates that a total of RD$15,100,000 in the printing of 3,089,689 ballots for the presidential level, 407,899 for the mayoralties and council offices 2,531,789 voting ballots.
In addition to 633,755 ballots to monopolize the pre-candidates to occupy the municipal addresses and 633,759 for the members.
Three thousand eight hundred seventy-six pre-candidacies were also made official at the levels of candidates for mayors, directors of municipal districts, councilors and members.