High court dashes Dominican Republic leader’s reelection hopes

Santo Domingo.- The hopes of some political sectors to allow president Danilo Medina to again seek the presidential candidacy for the 2020 election were dashed by a Constitutional Court ruling handed down Fri.

The high court ruled that it cannot declare the Dominican Constitution unconstitutional and refused a request for an injunction that sought to enable Medina to seek reelection again.

On February 15 the attorney Fredermido Ferreras filed the request to declare unconstitutional several articles of the Constitution, which stipulate that “in the event that the President of the Republic corresponding to the constitutional period 2012-2016 is candidate for the same office for the constitutional period 2016-2020,(the President) may not be presented for the next period or any other period, nor to the Vice President of the Republic.”

The justices ruled that it’s “inadmissible the direct motion of unconstitutionality filed by Fredermido Ferreras Díaz against the 20th transitory provision of the Constitution, of the 13th of June, 2015, because of the impossibility of declaring unconstitutional the Constitution itself.”