Santo Domingo.- The UN’s Development Program (UNDP) local representative has spent 10 months mulling Dominican Republic’s political culture and is convinced that "politics is really important" to forge pacts and push development programs.
Lorenzo Jiménez de Luis: "The reality is that everything is political. If you’re working with the players responsible for political decision-making, it impacts all development policies."
He quotes former Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president Enrique Iglesias’s expression that "politics matter" but despite that truth, notes that political decisions are key to reduce poverty.
The UNDP representative says one of the country’s political priorities is to reach a consensus to pass legislation on political parties and for an electoral law, which he affirms is as essential to improve the quality of the country’s democracy.
"Dominican Republic, politically speaking, is at a crossroads where its democracy and the quality of its democracy is at stake," said Jimenez interviewed on La Nota 95.7FM.
He said all Latin American countries have electoral laws on and political parties, so the country shouldn’t be the exception. He stresses however, that this should be a decision by the political players and Dominican authorities. "If there’s no guiding framework on political life, it would be difficult to work in politics."