Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: Government and Politics
The constitution requires that presidential candidates be
Dominican citizens by birth or origin, at least thirty years old,
and in possession of all political and civil rights. A candidate
cannot have been a member of the military or the police for at
least one year prior to election. Vice presidential candidates
must meet the same qualifications. The vice president may
assume the office of president when the chief executive is ill,
outside the country, or otherwise unable to perform the duties
of the office. If the president dies or becomes permanently
unable to carry out the functions of the office, the vice president
serves until the next scheduled election. If the vice president
is also unable to fill the office, the president of the
Supreme Court serves temporarily. Within fifteen days, the
president of the Supreme Court must convene the National
Assembly (which consists of both houses of the Congress),
which must then select a substitute to fill out the term.
The Dominican constitution takes twenty-seven paragraphs
in Article 55 to spell out the president's extensive powers.
Among the most important are those that grant the president
authority over almost all appointments and removals of public
officials and that empower him to promulgate the laws passed
by Congress; to engage in diplomatic relations; to command,
deploy, and make appointments in the armed forces; and to
extend pardons. The president also has the right to declare a
state of siege or a state of national emergency when Congress is
not in session, and to assume special emergency powers against
unions and strikes in the face of threats to public order or state
security. Historically, the exercise of these emergency powers
usually has been the prelude to dictatorship. The few limitations
the constitution places on presidential authority focus primarily
on the requirement that the president obtain
congressional consent to certain appointments, treaty negotiations,
and the exercise of emergency powers. In recent years,
perhaps the most important constraint on the executive has
been the constitutional provision that certain contracts, including
foreign assistance loans from international financial institutions,
require congressional approval.
The constitution of 1966 provides for cabinet secretaries of
state and subcabinet secretaries of state to assist in public
administration. These officials must be Dominican citizens, at
least twenty-five years of age, with full civil and political rights.
The powers of these officials are determined by law and are not
set forth in the constitution. However, the president is constitu-
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