DOMINICAN ELECTIONS #5: ELECTORAL CANDIDATES

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001100 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA; NSC FOR FISK AND FEARS; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; TREASURY FOR OASIA-J LEVINE; USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION; USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH; DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV DR SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTIONS #5: ELECTORAL CANDIDATES REGISTERED DESPITE CLAMOR ¶1. (U) This is the 5th cable in a series reporting on the Dominican Republic's 2006 congressional and municipal elections: Electoral Candidates Registered Despite Clamor Presidential legal advisor Cesar Pina Torribio doesn't like it, but after a week of clamor and recriminations, the Central Election Board (JCE) in the early hours of March 25 approved all the candidacies proposed by political parties for the May 16 congressional and municipal elections. The opposition PRD-PRSC alliance had turned in a messy joint list, some parts of it well after the deadline, and the ruling PLD complained of favoritism. All but one of the JCE judges, appointed in 2002 by the Senate, are linked to the PRD and PRSC. The JCE confirmed its decision March 27 following a review of the documents submitted. Electoral preparations thus advanced according to the established timetable, despite much-publicized procedural glitches and challenges. The media uproar served as a reminder of the fragility of institutions in a country where the last systematically fraudulent election occurred only 12 years ago. Pina Torribio and PLD Secretary General Reinaldo Pared Prez questioned the propriety of the JCE's actions, which were challenged by disappointed aspirants to public office. The ruling PLD had formally requested that the JCE invalidate all the opposition candidacies that were submitted several hours late. Many Candidates, Unwieldy Alliance Complications were inevitable in a scenario involving two partisan coalitions' candidates for election of 32 senators, 178 representatives, 151 mayors and their vice mayors, and nearly 1000 city councilmen, plus substitutes. At the center of the controversy was the PRD-PRSC opposition alliance, which had been negotiating since December on which party's candidates for each of the 2000-plus positions would represent the alliance. Local interests and rivalries dogged the national negotiators at every step, prolonging uncertainty in some places until shortly before the deadline for registering candidates, March 17 at midnight. From Deadline to Decision 
 In the event, opposition alliance representatives showed up at the JCE with only 15 minutes to spare and delivered documents for 60 percent of the candidates, requesting an extension for the remainder. Six of the nine JCE judges who were present or available by phone consulted and agreed to an extension of several hours. Municipal candidates' documents were delivered to JCE headquarters in Santo Domingo, instead of the municipal election boards according to established practice. The JCE summoned employees to the capital to retrieve the documents, which were distributed to the local boards March 18 for adjudication. Many of the documents lacked notarizations, photos, or other required items. The JCE gave all parties additional time to fill these gaps, as allowed by law. In a marathon plenary March 24 ending early March 25, the JCE judges accepted all the candidacies submitted by all parties. Over the weekend, JCE technicians examined the documents, and after another long plenary March 27 JCE president Luis Arias confirmed the validity of all the candidacies, based on the technicians, recommendations. Public Contention These events were accompanied by heavy static in the media. The ruling PLD and its minor allies, whipped into line by the powerful PLD political committee, delivered their candidate documentation on time. JCE secretary general Antonio Lockward announced that some opposition candidates' documents had been accepted past the deadline, but JCE judge Roberto Rosario - the only judge associated with the PLD - publicly criticized his colleagues' decision and carped over procedural irregularities surrounding municipal candidates. Subjected to counter-fire from other judges, Rosario recused himself from the March 24 plenary and "went on vacation." Presidential legal adviser Pina Toribio, who is the PLD's delegate to the JCE, requested that no late candidate registrations be accepted. Pina told the press that the PLD "distrusts" the election authorities and charged that the submission of opposition candidacies had been "irregular, chaotic, and illegal." The JCE plenary rejected the petition. In a press conference accompanied by the PLD's secretary general and national campaign manager, Pina called on the OAS and European Union to send international observers to boost citizens, confidence in the elections. PRD secretary general Orlando Jorge Mera retorted that the JCE routinely invites international observers; Embassy is aware of a Dominican Government invitation pending with the OAS. PRD and PRSC candidates who believed they or members of their parties had been unfairly excluded from the candidate lists continued to complain after the JCE decision. Chief among them was PRD faction leader and former tourism minister Rafael "Fello" Subervi. Solomonic Solution Prominent commentator Juan Bolivar Diaz - and others - rejected the ruling party's demand as unreasonable, as did the JCE in a formal ruling March 24. Wrote Diaz: "It would have been stupid to deny the extension. That would have precipitated a political crisis by eliminating 40 percent of the candidates of two of the three major political parties, for bureaucratic reasons." With only one major party on the ballot for many races, the situation would have seemed a throwback to the authoritarian late president Balaguer, who held the 1970 and 1974 elections after the opposition withdrew in protest against government repression. Prominent lawyer, former presidential legal adviser and JCE judge Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman called the whole affair "una tormenta en un vaso de agua" (a tempest in a teapot). He pointed out that the law allows for correcting errors in documents between the time of submission and the JCE's meeting to decide whether to accept them. He also said the officials' contradictory statements had tarnished the JCE in the public eye. Other commentators acknowledged that the registration deadline might have been stretched slightly, but argued that the JCE's "solomonic solution" was the most sensible under the circumstances. A Skeptic on the Street What did political officer's barber - with a penchant for sound bites -- think about the week's confusion surrounding late candidate registrations? "Dominicans always leave things to the last minute." Was public opinion exercised about the matter? "No one pays any attention to mid-term elections. People only care about choosing a president." Aren't legislators important? "Legislators don't serve the public, only their own pockets. They oppose every bill, then vote for it after their palms are greased" (se mojan las manos). Don't you care who is the next mayor of Santo Domingo? "Roberto (Salcedo, PLD) has worked well. Let's give him another term." Will you bother to vote? "Sure. It's the only leverage an ordinary citizen has." ¶2. (U) Drafted by Bainbridge Cowell. ¶3. (U) This piece and others in our series can be consulted at our SIPRNET web site (http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo) along with extensive other material. MINIMIZE CONSIDERED HERTELL