VZCZCXYZ0015
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #1174/01 2752102
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 022102Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3530
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHWN/AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN 2280
RUEHKG/AMEMBASSY KINGSTON 2981
RUEHBH/AMEMBASSY NASSAU 1114
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE 5053
RUEHSP/AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN 2016
RUMISTA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001174 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV DR
SUBJECT: PRD ANNOUNCES OFFICIAL RESULTS OF PARTY ELECTIONS; 
LOSERS CONTINUE TO CRY FOUL 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 1140 
 
(U)  Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (U)  SUMMARY:  The Revolutionary Democratic Party's (PRD) 
National Organizing Committee for the 27th National Ordinary 
Convention, on 9/30, announced the official results of the 
9/27 internal party balloting.  The final results confirmed 
an overwhelming victory for party President Miguel Vargas 
Maldonado and his candidates for Secretary General and 
Secretary for Organization.  The leading losing candidates 
for both positions, Guido Gomez Mazara and Tony Pena Guaba, 
continue to claim fraud.  The winning candidates and other 
party officials deny the allegations while avoiding getting 
into a slugging match with their accusers.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (U)  The official results of the PRD Convention are: 
 
--  Ratification of Vargas as the PRD's President:  96.35 
percent in favor; 
 
--  Elimination of Article 185 of the General Party Statute 
(this article prohibited the party's president from running 
as a candidate for national office):  93.54 percent in favor; 
 
--  Orlando Jorge Mera declared the winner in the race for 
Secretary General with 61.55 percent of the vote (runner-up 
Guido Gomez Mazara polled 38.99 percent); and 
 
--  Geanilda Vasquez Almanzar declared the winner in the race 
of Secretary of Organization with 48.48 percent of the vote 
(runner-up Tony Pena Guaba was a distant second with 39.95 
percent). 
 
In announcing the results, National Organzing Committee 
Chairman Tomas Hernandez Alberto noted that any formal 
challenges had to be filed within 48 hours and needed to 
refer to specific Actas (vote tally sheets); general 
allegations would not suffice. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The two main losing candidates, Gomez and Pena, 
continue to claim that they were the true winners of the 
Convention and that Vargas and his supporters in the party's 
electoral machinery perpetrated a fraud against them.  Gomez, 
in a series of media appearances and press conferences, 
alleged that a large number of Actas were altered by PRD 
electoral officials to add votes to Jorge's totals, and that 
Vargas then personally pressured one of Gomez' official 
representatives to sign off on the tallies.  Gomez also 
presented transcripts of what he claimed were Blackberry text 
messages between high-level members of Vargas's team, 
including Mera and Peggy Cabral (wife of the late PRD leader 
Jose Francisco Pena Gomez), in which the texters discussed 
carrying out the fraud.  He concluded his presentations by 
demanding that Vargas convoke a meeting of the PRD's 
Political Committee within two weeks to review the results, 
threatening to release additional text messages compromising 
an unnamed high-level official within the party.  When asked 
by the media how he obtained the transcripts of the purported 
text messages, Gomez refused to divulge his source. 
 
¶4.  (U)  Pena, in turn, vowed on 10/1 to formally object to 
over one thousand Actas, adding that if his protests are 
rejected he is prepared to take his case to the national 
Central Electoral Board (JCE) and even to the Socialist 
International (of which the PRD is a member).  In his press 
conference, Pena presented copies of Actas which he said were 
accepted by the party's electoral authorities even though 
they did not have the requisite signatures, evidenced similar 
handwriting even though they were ostensibly from different 
locations, did not have the same seal as that employed by the 
voting location, or registered more ballots as having been 
cast than there were voters. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Mera, who was re-elected Secretary General, proudly 
proclaimed in triumph, "My victory was overwhelming, clear 
and clean."  Jose Leonel Cabrera, spokesman for the PRD's 
bloc of congressional deputies called on Gomez to accept his 
defeat and recognize that this "does not signify that his 
world has ended."  Other officials accused by Gomez/Pena of 
complicity in the alleged fraud also took pains not to 
confront them directly, rejecting the charges while at the 
same time taking a condescending attitude towards the pair, 
yet avoiding getting into a verbal slugging match.  For 
 
example, Andy Dahuarjre, one of those fingered by Gomez, 
responded by noting his, "respect for Guido's right to 
express himself, including respect and defense of his right 
even to lie." 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  The PRD internal election results appear 
to be a fait accompli.  Gomez and Pena may insist on pursuing 
their appeals, but it is unlikely that either will succeed in 
his efforts.  Their objections to many of the Actas seem to 
be undercut by the fact that Gomez' representative signed off 
on the results.  And the transcripts presented by Gomez, 
however compromising they may appear to be, are unlikely to 
be properly authenticated.  The media give every indication 
of realizing this:  after initially giving sensationalist 
publicity to the fraud claims, press and broadcast sources 
are now starting to treat the allegations as yesterday's 
news.  What remains unclear is how the warring PRD factions 
will go about uniting for the upcoming congressional and 
municipal elections.  Given the importance of those races to 
their own political futures, it is expected that a way will 
be found.  END COMMENT. 
LAMBERT