Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: Government and Politics
the Senate. Deputies also represent provinces, but their seats
are appointed on the basis of population. According to the
constitution, there should be one deputy for each 50,000
inhabitants in a province, with no fewer than two per province;
in reality, adjustments based on census figures have often been
delayed. Nevertheless, the more populous provinces and the
National District do have larger delegations. In 1998 there
were 149 representatives in the Chamber of Deputies, fortyfour
of whom came from the National District of Santo Domingo.
An electoral law approved in 1997 (Law 275-97) calls for
the creation of single-member electoral districts in the larger
provinces of between 25,001 and 50,000 inhabitants, beginning
with the elections of 2002.
Deputies and senators must be Dominican citizens, at least
twenty-five years old, with full civil and political rights. They
must be natives or residents for at least five years of the province
they wish to represent. Naturalized citizens are eligible to
run for Congress if they have been Dominican citizens for ten
years. Senators and deputies are not allowed to hold another
public office concurrently.
The Senate and Chamber of Deputies may meet together as
the National Assembly on certain specific occasions cited by
the constitution—for example, when both the president and
vice president are unable to complete their terms of office and
a successor must be designated, or in order to amend the constitution
itself. By a three-fourths vote, the Chamber of Deputies
may bring accusations against public officials before the
Senate, but it has no other exclusive powers. In contrast, the
Senate has several exclusive powers. These currently include:
choosing the president and members of the Central Electoral
Board, electing the members of the Controller's Office,
approving diplomatic appointments made by the president,
and hearing cases of public misconduct brought before it by
the Chamber of Deputies, with removal possible with a threefourths
vote. As a result of the 1994 constitutional reform, the
Senate lost an important prerogative it previously had had, the
appointment of judges to the Supreme Court (see The Judiciary,
this ch.).
The Congress has broad powers to levy taxes, change the
country's political subdivisions, declare a state of emergency,
regulate immigration, approve or reject extraordinary expenditures
requested by the executive, legislate on all matters concerning
the public debt, examine annually all the acts of the
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