Dominican Revolutionary Party

Dominican Revolutionary Party
Partido Revolucionario Dominicano
President Miguel Vargas
General Secretary Danilo Rafael Junior Santos
Spokesperson Ruddy González
Founder Juan Bosch
Founded 21 January 1939 (1939-01-21)
Headquarters Avenida Jiménez Moya, Santo Domingo
Youth wing Juventud Revolucionaria Dominicana
Ideology Populism
Social democracy
Conservative liberalism
Political position Centre to
Centre-right[1][2]
Regional affiliation COPPPAL
International affiliation Socialist International,
Progressive Alliance
Colours           Blue and white
Slogan "National sovereignty, Freedom, Democracy and Social Justice"
Chamber of Deputies[3]
44 / 190
Senate
0 / 32
Mayors
57 / 155
Website
prd.org.do

The Dominican Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Dominicano or PRD) is one of the main political parties of the Dominican Republic. Traditionally a left of the centre position and social democratic in name, the party has shifted since the 2000s toward the centre-right.[1][2] The party’s distinctive color is white. Traditionally, the party has two presidents: the "Titular President" and the "Acting President" (and actually, a sort of Vice-President); until 2010 the Presidents and the Secretary-General were proscribed to run for any elected office.[4]

The party was founded in 1939 by several Dominican expatriated exiles living in Havana, Cuba, led by Juan Bosch. It was then established in the Dominican Republic on July 5, 1961. It was the first Dominican party based on populist and democratic leftist principles and an organization based on mass membership. Bosch was elected president in 1962 in what is generally believed to be the first honest election in the country's history. Bosch later left the party in a dispute over its ideological direction, and founded the Dominican Liberation Party on December 16, 1973.

The PRD has won the presidency three other times—in 1978 (Antonio Guzmán), 1982 (Salvador Jorge Blanco) and 2000 (Hipólito Mejía).

At the legislative elections, on the 16 May 2002, the party won 41.9% of the popular vote and 73 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 29 out of 31 seats in the Senate of the Dominican Republic. Its candidate at the presidential election on the 16th of May 2004, Hipólito Mejía, won 33.6% of the votes, failing to win a second term.

In the 16 May 2006 legislative elections, the party formed together with its traditional opponent, the Social Christian Reformist Party, and others the Grand National Alliance, that won only 82 out of 178 deputies and 10 out of 32 senators. The Dominican Revolutionary Party led the alliance, however, winning about 60 seats in the chamber of deputies and 6 in the Senate.

The party has been criticized for involvement in corruption, allowing right-wing paramilitary groups to operate from its soil for attacks launched into Haiti, and for becoming an increasingly conservative party serving the interests of transnational capital over the poor majority. The last PRD president, Hipólito Mejía, has been especially criticized for supporting the Iraq War.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Guzmán Then, Abel (13 June 2014). ""El PRD requiere de una seria reorientación ideológica hacia la izquierda democrática"". Diario Libre. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Ramón Alburquerque: El PRD parece un partido neoliberal a la derecha del PLD.". elbarahonero.com. November 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Busque sus Diputados" (in Spanish). Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "PRD deroga de estatutos el artículo 185, que impedía a Vargas postularse a la Presidencia" (in Spanish). Santo Domingo: Listín Diario. 28 February 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Sprague, 2013

External links

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