DOMINICAN ELECTION SERIES #2: PRD AND PRSC --

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 006669

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION SERIES #2: PRD AND PRSC --
STRETCHING UNTIL THEY BREAK


1. Following is the second in Embassy Santo Domingo's series
on the 2004 presidential elections:

(begin text)

PRD and PRSC - - STRETCHING UNTIL THEY BREAK

(Meetings sponsored over the weekend by rivals in the parties
provided the spectacle of splits and the prospect of
breakdown.)

Rival groups in the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD)
convened their competing versions of the PRD National
Executive Committee (CEN) on November 15, with sharply
contrasting outcomes. Following his November 13 "open
letter" to President arguing against a re-election effort,
CEN chair Hugo Tolentino Dipp declined to attend either
event.

The PRD CEN meeting at the Hotel Embajador presided by
Secretary of Culture Tony Raful endorsed proposals negotiated

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between the "Project for Hipolito" (PPH) and three PRD rivals
to keep open the lists for presidential nominations until
November 30, to select the winner on a "50 percent plus one
vote" basis, and to confirm the results a week after the
vote. They selected Peggy Cabral, widow of the PRD,s
charismatic leader Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, to organize a
convention on December 14. Featured participants along with
President Mejia,s campaign manager Secretary of Agriculture
Eligio Jaquez were three cooperating rivals for the
nomination - - Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Rafael
Subervi, and Enmanuel Esquea. The 550 members of this
832-member CEN were two hours late in starting their event
but made up for it with their enthusiasm. They elected a
full list of party officials and confirmed session president
Secretary of Culture Tony Raful as President of the PRD.

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At the same time, across town at the offices of the Socialist
International, a meeting of 1071 members of the other, rival
PRD National Executive Committee of 1300 faithful was chaired
by PRD President Hatuey Decamps, fierce opponent of
"continuism" in presidential politics. Decamps announced
that he would not, after all, have to carry out his published
intention to suspend Tony Raful from the post of acting PRD
president, since Raful had provided a letter of resignation
that same day. In fact, this version of the PRD CEN chose
the absent Raful to serve as vice president of the party.
They elected a full list of party officials and gave Hatuey
Decamps the authority to fill any vacancy and to set the date
of a national convention (on November 18 he designated
December 7, with confirmation of the results on December 14;
the Political Committee of the Hatuey rump congress voted to
bar the President from registering a candidacy for
re-election).

While the PRD constituted itself formally into two rival
organizations, the Reformist Social Christian Party (PRSC)
was moving rapidly in the same direction. On November 13 the
PRSC Executive Council formally suspended former presidential
candidate Jacinto Peynado and two senior supporters for
failing to respect party discipline. Peynado,s group had
adamantly insisted on far-reaching changes in party
leadership and insisted on overturning the March 2003 party
selection of Eduardo Estrella as the PRSC presidential
candidate. They claim that Mejia's PPH tampered in that
election, throwing it to Estrella with the intent of
weakening the party. Peynado and supporters formally
appealed their suspensions to the National Elections Board.

Peynado was in Miami for medical treatment, but his son, the
previously suspended supporters and PRSC members said to
constitute two-thirds of the membership of the National
Executive Committee met on Sunday, November 16, at the San
Carlos Club. They voted to expel from office PRSC President
Rafael Bello Andino and several other senior officials but
named no replacements for them. Sitting as observers at the
pro-Peynado conclave were notables from the PRD, the PLD and
lesser parties. A third PRSC aspirant to leadership,
Francisco "Quique" Atun, was not present but has managed to
keep up cordial contacts with both groups.

Leonel Fernandez of the PLD made a point of scheduling a
successful political rally the same weekend with the "Somos
Mas" faction of his party, which served previously as the
party campaign vehicle for his rival Jaime David Fernandez
Mirabal. His message: "Those who cannot govern themselves
are in no condition to govern the country."

(end text)


2. Drafter: Michael Meigs
KUBISKE