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DE RUEHDG #0076/01 0121732
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P 121732Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
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UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000076 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; 
TREASURY FOR OASIA-JLEVINE; DEPT PASS USDA FOR FAS; 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: DR PGOV PREL PINR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS III #13: A NEW, MORE SERIOUS 
NATIONAL ELECTIONS BOARD 
 
¶1. This is the thirteenth cable in our series on Dominican 
politics in the third year of the administration of President 
Leonel Fernandez. 
 
¶2. (SBU)  In November 2006 the Senate chose a new 9-member 
elections authority (JCE), composed for the most part of 
eminent jurists.  The JCE is showing great seriousness in 
electoral responsibilities and in confronting the appalling 
state of the national citizenship registry. 
 
A NEW, MORE SERIOUS NATIONAL ELECTIONS BOARD 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
Dominican authorities and the three major Dominican parties 
have begun the 17-month arc of the current Dominican 
electoral cycle, to culminate in the presidential elections 
of May 16, 2008.  At a January 10 lunch with the Ambassador, 
historian Frank Moya Pons and journalist Adriano Tejada 
agreed especially on one particular point: the national 
elections calendar leaves no breathing room to the public or 
the political parties.  With congressional elections and 
presidential elections only two years apart, the country is 
perpetually in campaign. 
 
In the current talk about constitutional reform, some 
participants advocate holding "reunifying" national 
elections, so that the elective offices are chosen at 4-year 
intervals.  That was the pattern until 1994, an election in 
which the scope of electoral fraud led to the negotiated 
departure of Joaquin Balaguer from the presidency two years 
later. 
 
JCE - A Few Good Men and Women 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
By law, the Central Elections Board (Junta Central Electoral 
or JCE) has absolute jurisdiction, subject to no further 
appeal, over elections, electoral conduct, citizenship 
registration, voter registration, and electoral disputes. 
The newly elected Senate chooses JCE members for 4-year 
terms.  Since the 1996 elections, the JCE has had a good 
record, overall, although inevitably the members have 
reflected the composition of the Senate that appointed them. 
 
PLD and PRSC congressional representatives criticized the 
1998 - 2002 board as too dominated by its PRD-affiliated 
president Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda, Senators expanded the JCE 
from 5 to 9 members and undercut the JCE president's 
authority by structuring it as three quasi-independent 
chambers -- a plenary, a three-member chamber for 
administrative matters, and a five-member disputes body.  On 
the 2002-2006 JCE seven of the nine justices were 
unapologetically partisans of the PRD.  Even so, their 
administration of elections was generally above reproach, 
particularly given the clear sense of the citizensry -- the 
overwhelming 2004 defeat of PRD candidate for presidential 
re-election Hipolito Mejia and the 2006 PLD sweep of the 
Senate and PLD majority in the House. 
 
In 2006 Senate President Reinaldo Pared Perez (also Secretary 
General of the ruling PLD) and the 27 PLD Senators in the 
32-member chamber took an apparently different approach to 
selecting election judges. In October he insisted to the 
Ambassador that the Senate would seek only the best and most 
qualified individuals for the jobs.  They invited candidacies 
and reviewed more than 150 individuals, initially on paper 
and subsequently, for a group of 41, in direct interviews. 
The JCE board announced on November 22 was conspicuously less 
partisan than in the past.  Each of the 9 appointees has a 
designated substitute in case of withdrawal or resignation. 
 
 
Six members, including the plenary presiding justice Julio 
Cesar Castanos Guzman, were legal professionals with few or 
no connections with the political parties.  (Julio Cesar's 
brother, Servio Tulio Castanos Guzman, is executive director 
 
of the USAID-supported watchdog NGO, "Foundation for Justice 
and Institution-Building," or FINJUS). 
 
Only three had patent political ties: Roberto Rosario (PLD), 
the only justice retained from the previous JCE; Eddy 
Olivares Ortega (PRD), who nosed out the PRD's initially 
proposed candidate Cesar Diaz Filpo; and Cesar Feliz Feliz 
(PRSC). 
 
Senators insisted on electing Dra. Aura Celeste Fernandez 
Rodriguez, the director of the Judiciary School, even though 
she had written to the Senators seeking to decline and 
warning of the dangers of politicizing the body.  She had 
served on the 1998-2002 JCE. In 2004 the U.S. Department of 
State gave Fernandez Rodriguez a human rights award for 
achievements in improving training of judges and prosecutors. 
 
Thick Dossiers, Big Issues 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
The JCE has its work cut out, cleaning up after its 
predecessors and setting up for the 2008 elections: 
 
- -  Justices were dismayed that a US$ 62 million contract to 
contractor SOMO to computerize citizenship files and automate 
ID issuance had apparently produced almost nothing.  They 
have voted to engage an audit firm to review SOMO's work to 
date. 
 
- - They have discharged various staff members, generally 
without comment. 
 
- - Presiding justice Castanos Guzman has responded 
aggressively to cuts made to the JCE budget in the Fernandez 
administration's 2007 budget.  Congress has agreed to restore 
some, but not all, of the funds. 
 
- - Justices approved a regulation to oversee finances of 
political party primaries and candidates' campaigns.  Many in 
all three major parties welcomed this decision and praised 
the JCE's restraint in leaving to party structures the 
decisions about voting procedures and timetables.  This 
activity begins on January 28 as the JCE monitors the PRD's 
internal voting in the contest between Miguel Vargas 
Maldonado and Milagros Ortiz Bosch. 
 
- - Castanos Guzman acknowledged the chaotic state of the 
national citizenship registry, in which on average 17 percent 
of the records had been severely damaged, lost, or rendered 
otherwise unusable.  About a quarter of the indisputably 
Dominican population has no official record of birth and has, 
in effect, no legal existence. 
 
- - Justices declared their intention to regulate fees and 
compensation much more closely for the 161 civil registry 
employees across the country, who to date have been left to 
set their own fees, in a sort of "tax farming" enterprise 
across the country.  The JCE intends to set maximum 
compensation to 60,000 pesos per month -- at just less than 
US $2000, still a relatively princely sum for the Dominican 
Republic.  Op-Ed commentators suggest that this will be such 
a drop in compensation that many officials will leave. 
 
- - At the urging of Justice John Guilliani Valenzuela, the 
JCE is working on a proposal to create an official registry 
 
of births of foreigners.  If created, this mechanism and 
procedure would put the country in compliance with 
international treaty obligations, at least going forward. 
This is a very sensitive topic, particularly because of 
Dominican sensibilities about Haitians resident in the 
country without permission.  Ambassador Hertell raised the 
matter in his November 22 speech and received a blistering 
public attack from Foreign Minister Morales Tronocoso, 
otherwise a friend and admirer of the United States.  The 
headache of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented 
Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry will also have to 
be addressed, eventually. 
 
Capsule Bios of the JCE Members 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
PLENARY PRESIDENT 
 
Castanos Guzman, Dr. Julio Cesar, president of the JCE 
Plenary.  Professor of law at the catholic PUCMM law school, 
practices law at own firm Castanos & Castanos.  Has held 
government appointments as JCE judge 1998-2002, deputy legal 
advisor to President Balaguer, and government prosecutor for 
the capital district in the early 1990's.  Two brothers are 
also attorneys, including Servio Tulio, executive director of 
the Foundation for Justice and Institution Building.  His 
father, Julio Cesar Castanos Espaillat, was three times 
rector of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and 
prominent in the PRD and PRSC, briefly becoming a potential 
presidential candidate in 1974. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE CHAMBER 
 
Rosario Marquez, Dr. Roberto, president of the Administrative 
Chamber.  Ties to PLD; the only judge to be re-elected.  Has 
worked as legal consultant to the Commission on the Reform of 
State Industries.  Has his own law practice and is an 
associate member of the Chamber of Accounts, the audit arm of 
the National Congress. 
 
Aquino Rodriguez, Dr. Jose Angel, member, Administrative 
Chamber   UASD law graduate.  Has monitored elections on 
behalf of the USAID-supported NGO "Participacion Ciudadana." 
 
Feliz Feliz, Dr. Cesar Francisco, member, Administrative 
Chamber.   Tied to the PRSC.   Holds degree in law, has 
served as a secretary of the justice of the peace in Cabral, 
as a judge, as a Congressman, and is a member of the National 
Council of the Judiciary (the body that chooses judges). 
Advisor to Congress. 
 
DISPUTES CHAMBER Rodriguez Rijo, Dr. Mariano, president of 
the Disputes Chamber.  UASD graduate, a professor at the 
catholic PUCMM law school, who has served as the president of 
the JCE board for the capital district since 1999. 
 
Fernandez Rodriguez, Dra. Aura Celeste, member, Disputes 
Chamber.  Graduate of the catholic PUCMM law school, former 
JCE judge 1998-2002, coordinator of the Commission for the 
Reform and Modernization of the Judiciary, former secretary 
general of the Commission for Penitentiary Policies, current 
director of the National School for the Judiciary. 
 
Guilliani Valenzuela, Dr. John N, member, Disputes Chamber. 
Graduate of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo 
(UASD), with his own law firm.  This is his first government 
appointment. 
 
Pina Medrano, Dra. Leyda.   Graduate of the UNPHU law school 
and a professor of law at the UNIBE.  She worked on the 
 
consumer protection code and is a member of the commission 
currently preparing a constitutional reform project. 
 
Olivares Ortega, Dr. Eddy de Jess.   Tied to the PRD.  UASD 
graduate who has served as prosecutor for Santo Domingo, 
secretary of the Santo Domingo city hall, and legal advisor 
 
SIPDIS 
to the Mayor. 
 
Photos of some of the judges are displayed in our SIPRNET 
daily report of January 11, 2007. 
 
¶3. (U) This report and extensive other material can be 
consulted on our SIPRNET site, 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/  
HERTELL