Weekly Report - 25 September 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

President Leonel Fernández presented a comprehensive constitutional reform package to congress last week. It embraces the thorny issues of presidential re-election, judicial reform and nationality, in addition to increasing citizen participation and enshrining social development initiatives in the constitution. It also advocates enlarging both chambers of congress and re-synchronising legislative and presidential elections, which have taken place two years apart since 1996, when seven times President Joaquí­n Balaguer was forced to cut short his mandate under heavy domestic and international pressure.