REFORMISTA PARTY LEADERSHIP BATTLE WORSENS SPLITS

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000484 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR BPREMONT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL DR SUBJECT: REFORMISTA PARTY LEADERSHIP BATTLE WORSENS SPLITS REF: A. 08 SDO 1513 ¶B. 08 SDO 1921 ¶C. 08 SDO 1666 ¶D. SDO 315 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The once mighty Reformista Party has become so fractured that it cannot proceed with the selection of a new set of leaders. Indeed, one commentator referred to the party as an "archipelago of individual interests." New leadership was to have been selected last autumn, but this was postponed until March 2009. After some confusion, the selection process has been delayed yet again - without a firm deadline being set. While the party may not entirely disappear, it could be reduced to being just another minor party that swirls around President Fernandez. Or, some speculate, the party could one day become a vehicle for Fernandez to promote his wife's political career. Certainly, absent a real change in attitudes among the party's squabbling leaders, the Reformista Party will not contribute to the health of Dominican democracy as a responsible opposition party that offers reasonable alternatives to the President's wishes. End Summary. What if they gave a party and nobody came? -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The efforts of the Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC) to revitalize itself have been going on since the party was crushed in the May 2008 Dominican presidential elections (reftels A - B). After inconclusive efforts in the Autumn of 2008, the Reformista Party, as the PRSC is also called, planned to select new leadership by February or March ¶2009. However, divisions within the party worsened over the intervening months, not least over the question of whether the new leadership should be agreed upon by consensus or elected in nationwide primaries. ¶3. (SBU) At the beginning of March, the President of the Party (Federico Autun Batlle) and General Secretary (Victor Gomez Casanova) called for "General Internal Primaries" to be held on March 29, 2009. Certainly, the party's statutes required action by then, but this move led to cries of foul by those interested in a consensus approach, such as powerful Santiago mayor Jose Enrique Sued (reftel C). In February, the Executive Commission of the PRSC had approved the selection of the leadership by consensus, in hopes of reunifying the party. At that time, it looked like Sued would emerge as First VP of the PRSC, while Congressman Victor "Ito" Bisono (reftels) would become the new PRSC General Secretary. ¶4. (SBU) Then, in mid-March a group of ex-PRSC officials from several provinces announced that they would not return to the party's fold. Instead, they would continue to "follow Leonel Fernandez." Among this group is Walter Musa, mayor of Puerto Plata, and the DR Ambassador to Colombia, Angel Lockwood. In so doing, they are emulating the lead of the Foreign Minister, Carlos Morales Troncoso - a top PRSC leader, and now a key member of the Fernandez administration. ¶5. (U) The internal divisions next led to an announcement, days before the planned March 29 event, that the process of leadership selection would be suspended. Shortly thereafter, a party official and member of its Organizing Committee indicated that an effort would be made to convoke an "Extraordinary Convention" of the PRSC on April 19, at which some 1,300 delegates should approve changes to the party's statutes, thereby paving the way for some kind of leadership selection on or about May 3, 2009. (Note: The Extraordinary Convention has now been re-scheduled for June 7, by which time DR legislators should be finished changing the constitution. End Note.) ¶6. (U) Reformista optimism following that announcement, if any, did not last long: On March 25, the Central Elections Board (JCE) declared that the PRSC would not be among those parties sharing a substantial portion of the government funds that go to support political campaigns in the Dominican Republic. According to Dominican law, 80 percent of government-sourced campaign financing must go the party or parties that receive at least five percent of the vote. The other 20 percent are shared by all other parties. In the 2008 presidential elections, the PRSC received 4.59 percent of the vote. The PRSC had petitioned for that figure to be "rounded up," and also pointed to the 15 percent of the vote it got in congressional and mayoral elections in 2006, but the JCE ruled against the request. Comment -------------- ¶7. (SBU) One political commentator, Juan Bolivar Diaz, surveyed the wreckage in a recent editorial and concluded, "The prospects for the PRSC are (poor): not recuperation, but more dispersion, since many of its leaders are scrambling for the benefits that the new (Fernandez) constitution offers." Yet Fernandez needs some PRSC support to ensure that his desired reforms receive the necessary two-thirds vote in Congress (reftel D). So, Diaz indicated, the PRSC - or a significant part thereof - will agree to ally itself with the PLD in legislative and municipal elections to be held 14 months from now. ¶8. (SBU) We would argue that instead of seeking short-term alliances that facilitate patronage, PRSC leaders would better serve Dominican democracy if they reconstituted the PRSC as a party with principles and programs. End Comment. BULLEN