PLD puts itself to the test with internal election for presidential election

Santo Domingo, DR.
The Dominican Liberation Party is putting itself to the test this Sunday with the so-called “citizen consultation,” in which they intend to select their future presidential candidate.

All members of the purple party and people who are not registered in any other political party are summoned to the event, totaling more than 6 million possible voters, based on the electoral roll of the Central Electoral Board.

In the race are Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, former vice-president of the country; Abel Martínez, former president of the Chamber of Deputies; Francisco Domínguez Brito, the former attorney general of the country and Minister of Labor and Environment; Maritza Hernández, former Minister of Labor and Karen Ricardo, former congresswoman.

The members of the PRI come to this meeting with a particular premise: they have seen themselves advance their process of selection of presidential pre-candidate under the idea that the Partido Revolucionario Moderno would already have in President Luis Abinader as its figure for the elections of 2024 and Fuerza del Pueblo would have Leonel Fernández, as its only leader.

Of the two possible adversaries, only Abinader has not made official his aspirations, which would lead him to seek a consecutive repostulation.

But the process also puts the PLD against its own mirror and experiences of 2019, when on October 6, 2019, they were brutally divided by the disagreement of former President Fernandez with the electoral results that gave the candidacy to Gonzalo Castillo, the political bishop of the then president of the country, Danilo Medina.

Since then, the PLD lost the general municipal, congressional, and presidential elections, losing all the political power it had accumulated uninterruptedly since 2004.

On this election lies the same concern of 2019: that the aspirants respect and recognize the voting results.

The leading candidates in the race are former vice-president Margarita Cedeño, Abel Martínez, and Francisco Domínguez Brito.

Of these three, Cedeño and Martínez have the most significant number of leaders of the purple party.

Cedeño is supported by a good part of Danilismo, the dominant current among the purple party since they took power in the country in 2012.

Martinez is backed by the most significant number of deputies and mayors in the party, including some traditional figures of Danilismo.

Voting begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m. today. Voting will be automated, and results are expected to be available tonight.