Thirteen opposition political parties and two social movements led a busy March for Democracy yesterday, in which they proposed a political-social pact, which clears the distrust of the population and ensures that the municipal elections rescheduled for March 15 are held in an environment of equity and without the irruption of the government.
In a proclamation issued at the end of the march at the Altar de la Patria, they said that this pact becomes more important for the elections of May 17, in which the control of the two major powers of the State will be at stake: the Executive and the Legislative.
“We demand that the holders of the Central Electoral Board fulfill the responsibilities attributed to them by the Constitution to organize free elections, with equity, objectivity and transparency,” they maintain in the document.
They express that in other circumstances the failure of February 16, with the suspension of the municipal elections after the collapse of the automated voting system, the members of the JCE would have been precious to resign, but that they should be aware that they have the credit suspended, and that as its president Julio César Castaños Guzmán said, they are forced to be born again.
The March
The March for Democracy began with a two-hour delay, called by 13 opposition political parties in demand of an explanation for the suspension of municipal elections last Sunday, February 16, for failures presented in the automated voting system.
It was 11:10 in the morning when the massive demonstration began to move along Máximo Gómez Avenue. This march was divided by three different blocks: the leaders of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) and allies met on John F. Kennedy Avenue with Máximo Gómez, headed by presidential candidate Luis Abinader. The Christian Social Reform Party (PRSC), gathered near the corner of George Washington, on the boardwalk in the capital, with its president Federico Antún Batlle at the head. While the Fuerza del Pueblo party and its allies focused on the Máximo Gómez corner February 27, with its candidate Leonel Fernández in front. The latter was the meeting point convened and departed from the opposition caravan.
Altar of the Fatherland
Shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon, after two hours of being initiated, the first group of protesters belonging to the PRSC arrived, but it was not until twenty minutes after the traffic around the Independence Park collapsed. Just when former president Fernandez arrived, his followers approached him to ask for photographs and talk for a few seconds with the presidential candidate for Force of the People.
Before 2:00 pm, Luis Abinader also arrived, who was accompanied by Milagros Ortiz Bosch, stayed behind Leonel Fernández’s vehicle, from where he heard the notes of the National Anthem, a prayer and the proclamation read by three young men , including the candidate for the National District Senate by the PRM, Faride Raful.
The parties that participated in this march, in addition to the PRM, PRSC and Force of the People, were Dominican Humanist Party (PHD), Dominicans for Change (DXC), Frente Amplio, Alliance for Democracy (APD), Social Democratic Revolutionary Party ( PRSD), Progressive National Force (FNP), Democratic Social Institutional Block (BIS), Quisqueyano Christian Democratic Party (PQDC) and National Unity Party (PUN), as well as the Social Coalition Democracy for National Regeneration and Coalition for the Defense of Social groups the Constitution.
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