Hernández Mayoral steps down from PDP status post
Cites governing board about-face on partywide leadership vote
By The Star Staff
José Alfredo Hernández Mayoral, the eldest son of ex-governor Rafael Hernández Colón and a prominent figure within the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), has notified the party’s president, José Luis Dalmau Santiago, of his resignation from the PDP Status Committee.
Hernández Mayoral said in a letter that the decision was prompted by the last-minute moves within the party to perpetuate, at least until the end of 2023, Dalmau Santiago’s presidency.
“I hereby give notice of my resignation from the status committee of which I have been a member at your request. I thank you for the trust placed in me for that management and the others we have carried out together,” Hernández Mayoral wrote. “Only two months ago, the Governing Board of the party made the wise decision to recognize the power of the vote to choose its president. This past Friday, that same Board approved a resolution to cancel the exercise of the PDP vote and instead distribute the leadership of the party among members of the Board itself.”
“If the approved resolution is implemented, the party will be governed by a committee that, in my opinion, and I also think that of the PDP, will lack legitimacy,” he wrote. “This feeling obliges me to resign from the committee.”
A more inclusive party
The PDP governing board had approved in a meeting last Friday a proposal to the Regulations Assembly to adjust its political structure to the new times in order to grant greater citizen participation and inclusion of all sectors.
The party’s governing body proposed more representation in its decision-making structures, adding eight new chairs to the board, which include one representative from each of the following sectors: the LGBTTIQ+ community, the faith-based community, community leaders, disabled persons, private sector workers, union leaders, small and midsize business owners, and retirees and pensioners. Those additions join the Popular Women’s Organization, the National Popular Youth, and the Public Servants Organization, which are already represented.
PDP Secretary General Luis Vega Ramos also announced that the amendments would change the administrative structure of the party using the model of representative districts, increasing the number of people to be elected by each organization from eight to 40.
“The determination of the Governing Board seeks to expand representation and democracy in this party and provide greater participation to all actors in our society who see in the PDP an instrument of change and social justice to adapt it to our times and strengthen our working class and other sectors that legitimately demand that their voice be heard,” Vega Ramos said. “The time has come for greater democracy, unity, and oversight; that is where we are going with these proposals.”
The official added that “for many years, our base has demanded greater participation and integration of the sectors of the people in the decision-making process of the collectivity.”
“With this proposal, the PDP Board listens to this demand and puts it in the hands of our delegates to expand our performance toward a modern and effective party that ends up being more popular and democratic,” he said. “Personally, I do not see how anyone can oppose this principle.”