Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04SANTODOMINGO355
2004-01-15 22:53:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:  

ELECTIONS # 15 - PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS AS

Tags:  PGOV DR 
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UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000355 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV DR
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS # 15 - PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS AS
DOMINICAN CONGRESS POSTPONES DISCUSSION ON "SLOGAN LAW"

REF: A. SANTO DOMINGO 00233


B. SANTO DOMINGO 00147

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000355

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV DR
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS # 15 - PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS AS
DOMINICAN CONGRESS POSTPONES DISCUSSION ON "SLOGAN LAW"

REF: A. SANTO DOMINGO 00233


B. SANTO DOMINGO 00147


1. Following is no. 15 in our series on the Dominican
elections.

CONGRESS POSTPONES DISCUSSION ON "SLOGAN LAW"

Dominican President of the Chamber of Deputies Alfredo
Pacheco, postponed the January 15 congressional committee
session when a block of Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC)
congressional representatives walked out. Since PLD congress
reps were deliberately absent already, as previously
threatened, this left the chamber without a quorum. The
first point on today's agenda was to have been a discussion
on the revised version of the controversial "slogan law"
(reftels A and B). Pacheco announced that the bill would be
placed on the agenda for debate next week.

PRSC spokesperson Luis Reyes Ozuna said that the
representatives had abandoned their posts at the direction of
party leaders. Reyes Ozuna took a swipe at the rival PLD,
saying that PRSC members felt oppressed by them. "With the
PLD buses bringing people here, this is no way to legislate."

The planned demonstrations against the "slogan law" were
probably supported in part by the PLD, as the party that has
the least to gain from the law. However, most prominent
among the peaceful crowd of several hundred were civil
society groups Participacion Ciudadana (PC) and Fundacion
Institucionalidad y Justicia (FINJUS). They carried placards,
waved copies of the Constitution and sang.

The "slogan law" has become a hot topic in political circles,
rivaling stories on USTR Robert Zoellick's visit and FTA
negotiations. The full civil society "Elections Monitoring
Commission" headed by Msgr Agripino Nunez met January 14 and
endorsed their board's unanimous rejection of the draft law.
A full-page ad in "Hoy" on January 15 signed by 60 retired
police and military officers -- half of them formerly of flag
rank -- fiercely rejected the proposal as unconstitutional.
The omnibus NGO "Coalition for Transparency" petitioned House
of Representatives President Pacheco to stop action on the
proposal because of its unconstitutionality.

Proponents of the law had already agreed to submit it to the
Supreme Court for an advisory opinion after passage but
before the signature into law. Our own reading of the
revised version of the "slogan law" -- now labeled the
"preferential vote law" -- as circulated earlier this week is
that it conflicts directly with Article 90 of the
Constitution ("When no candidate obtains an absolute majority
of the valid votes, a second election will be carried out 45
days later. Participants are limited to the two candidates
who obtained the greatest number of votes in the first
election.") The PRD-sponsored draft provides in contrast that
"participants in a second round are limited to the leading
candidates of the two parties having received the most valid
votes in the first round."

President Mejia's three in-house PRD rivals have been
scrambling. Early in the week they declared that they would
join forces and back one of their number under the proposed
new arrangements. On Wednesday they jointly filed a petition
to the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional certain
articles of the current Electoral Law which requires
candidates for the presidency to be sponsored by a political
party.

President Mejia is in a "win-win" situation on this issue.
The PRD convention is scheduled to go ahead on Sunday,
January 18, with Mejia running against two relative unknowns
and certain to take the nomination. He will be on the
ballot, no matter what the outcome of the "slogan law" debate.



2. Drafted by Angela Kerwin.
HERTELL