In the last municipal elections, Kelvin Cruz He was one of the most voted in the country, obtaining over 78% of the votes to continue for a third term in the La Vega City Hall. However, the president Luis Abinader appoint him as minister of Sportsimmediately submitted his resignation and moved his office to the Olympic Center in the capital.
Cruz, who also chaired the Dominican Federation of Municipalities (Fedomu), will go from driving a budget of 500 million of pesos to one of 3.8 billion pesos at the Ministry of Sports.
His position should have been assumed by the Deputy Mayor Amparo Custodiobut she also declined. In a statement on Monday she said: “We have a set of values ​​and principles, so we would not deprive that party, which nominated Kelvin, of the right to nominate the person they deem appropriate.”
What’s next?
The first paragraph of the Article 64 of the Law 176-07, on the National District and the Municipalities He points out: “If there were no vice-trustee, the president/a of the municipal council addressed the president of the Republic to proceed with his designation in accordance with the procedure established in the Constitution“.
He Article 128 of the Constitution details the powers of the president of the Republic, but Waldys Taverasformer councilor of National District and specialist in matters municipalexplains that it is not within the competences to designate vacancies for elected officials.
“Therefore, There is a void“, says Taveras, who also chairs the Commonwealth of Greater Santo Domingo.
Remember that article 64 of the Law 176-07 indicates that the Council of Aldermen may appoint the general secretary as mayor interim. “The question arises: how long can someone be interim“For a full period?” he asks, while reiterating that there is a gap in the law.
In this sense, Taveras suggests that, in a modification the municipal law establishes that the vacant be filled with a terna filed with the resigning party, similar to when a congressman or elected official resigns.
It points out that the Law 176-07 refers to the Constitutionbut Article 128 does not establish the section that will be the basis for appointing the new mayor of La Vega.
What Abinader said
Consulted on this matter in THE Weekly with the Pressthe president Luis Abinader He said he would follow the succession procedure established by the Constitution.
In the 2006-2016 administration, the Senate approved the draft “Law on the succession of deputy mayors in municipalities throughout the country”, which would establish a clearer way to choose a substitute mayor or deputy mayor, but the project expired and fell into oblivion.
Article 3 of the piece states:
In the event of a definitive, duly justified absence of the vice mayor, as the case may be, before or after his or her swearing-in, it will be up to the Higher body of the political organization that nominated him or her to make the respective substitution through the Council of Aldermen, by presenting a list of three candidates for the selection of the substitute, as the case may be, as established in paragraph II of Article 36 of Municipal Law No. 176-07, within a period of no more than thirty days from the occurrence of the vacancy.
