Former President of the Republic, Lionel Fernandez, said Monday that it is “illegal” for the executive to decide to distribute half of the economic resources allocated to political parties after approval of the budget law.
“It is clear that the national budget is a law and this law has been approved, and if the law stipulates that there are 1,200 million that must be granted to political parties, then no one can override that law that has already been approved, then any other measure would be illegal. It is thus subject to legal action, “said Fernandez.
For this year 2021, the executive authority initially ordered the allocation of 1,260 million pesos to be distributed to political parties. However, according to the state budget, NTD 630,200,000 will be allocated only to political organizations, while the other half will appear under the category “not applicable”.
The Fuerza del Pueblo party leader added that it could not be used as a reason to use the other half to build an extension of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in Santo Domingo Este because during his governments “9 extensions of the Union of American Democratic States have been built and the budget of political parties has not been affected by this issue”.
“Political parties represent the backbone of the democratic system. The parties should be strengthened and not weakened, so I think it is a mistake to try to distort the law that has already been passed in the Congress of the Republic,” Fernandez emphasized.
In electoral years, the executive usually allocates economic items of around 3 billion pesos to distribute to the parties, while in non-electoral years the amounts hover around 1,200 million reais.
The amount of R $ 630 million that will be delivered to political organizations is the lowest amount ever delivered by the government.