(Bloomberg) -- As leaders across Latin America sweep aside constitutional term limits to cling to power, the Dominican Republic is pushing changes to make it harder for authoritarians to stay in office.
President Luis Abinader said he will introduce constitutional amendments Aug. 16 to bar future presidents from extending their own terms. This would “lock in” the current system that only allows two consecutive four-year terms, he said.
The idea of the “indispensable man” has often permeated Dominican politics, leading to “dictatorships and authoritarian governments,” Abinader told reporters on Monday.
The country was run by a dictator, Rafael Trujillo, from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, and had indefinite reelection through 1994. In 2002, President Politico Mejia changed the constitution while he was in office to run for a second term, but lost.
This century, leaders in Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Bolivia have all sought to change or override restrictions on reelection.
Most recently, El Salvador’s supreme electoral tribunal allowed President Nayib Bukele to run for reelection in February despite constitutional prohibitions.
In Venezuela, late President Hugo Chavez oversaw changes to the constitution from 1999 to allow reelection, then did away with term limits entirely in 2009, paving the way for Nicolas Maduro to run for a third term in last month’s contested and controversial vote.
Abinader’s proposal will have to be approved by congress, where he has a large majority. He said that of the 39 constitutional reforms that the Dominican Republic has seen, 31 changed election laws “often with nefarious results.”
Abinader, who won reelection this year in a landslide, said he will also be presenting amendments that will cut the number of national deputies from 190 to 137, and safeguard the independence of the justice department.
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