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UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001343 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV DR
SUBJECT: MAJOR PARTIES' PRIMARIES JUDGED FREE AND FAIR, THOUGH 
RESERVATION OF MOST IMPORTANT CANDIDACIES UNDERCUTS INTERNAL PARTY 
DEMOCRACY 
 
SUMMARY 
 
--------------- 
 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  The ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and 
opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), in late 
November/early December, held primary elections for a majority of 
their candidacies in the 05/16/10 congressional/municipal 
elections.  The Central Electoral Board (JCE), the independent 
government agency responsible for overseeing electoral activities, 
judged the respective primaries to have been generally free and 
fair, with a few notable exceptions.  While over a hundred losing 
candidates earned headlines with complaints of fraud or other 
irregularities, only a handful are likely to be found to have 
merit.  Both the PLD and the PRD have reserved substantial numbers 
of candidacies for selection by the parties' leaderships (up to 30 
percent, with another 15 percent set aside for alliance partners). 
A lower court recently found the practice of reserving candidacies 
unconstitutional, but this decision almost certainly will be 
reversed on appeal.  While the primaries themselves represent a 
step forward for the electoral process in the Dominican Republic, 
the reservation of the most important candidacies by the PLD's and 
PRD's leaderships emphasizes the continued limitations on internal 
party democracy here.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
 
RELATIVELY SMOOTH PRIMARIES 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The PLD and PRD agreed to stagger their primaries on 
four separate weekends during late November/early December, 
although the PRD had to use an additional weekend when logistical 
difficulties prevented primaries from going forward as scheduled in 
a couple of rural provinces.  JCE Administrative Chamber President 
Roberto Rosario, in a 12/22/09 meeting with Charge, A/DCM and 
Pol-Econ Counselor, explained that both parties sought and received 
substantial technical assistance from the JCE in organizing and 
carrying out their respective primaries. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Rosario, along with fellow JCE members Jose Aquino and 
Cesar Felix, as well as JCE General Administrator of Information 
Miguel Garcia and JCE National Director of Elections Joel Lantigua, 
characterized the primaries as generally free and fair.  They noted 
that while the media highlighted approximately 200 allegations of 
fraud and other irregularities, the total number of complaints 
amounted to less than half of one percent of the candidates 
involved.  The JCE officials predicted that only a handful of these 
challenges are likely to prosper.  They also commented that the 
primaries were a major improvement over the primaries held in 
advance of the 2006 congressional/municipal elections, which they 
said were much more problematic, particularly that of the PRD. 
 
 
 
THE PARTIES' MACHINES MAINTAIN CONTROL 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
 
 
¶4.  (U)  The two major parties each publicized their efforts to 
"purify" their list of primary candidates to ensure that 
individuals with criminal records or alleged links to 
narcotrafficking were excluded:  the PLD disqualified 22 
pre-candidates, while the PRD rejected over 70.  They also adopted 
measures, in conformance with their party statutes, to reserve a 
substantial number of candidacies to be selected by the parties' 
leaderships.  The PLD, for example, is reserving all 26 of the 
senate seats it holds along with its Social Christian Reformist 
Party (PRSC) alliance partner, leaving just six nominations to be 
 
 
 
contested.  In addition, the PLD has reserved 51 of 178 national 
deputy slots, 51 mayoral candidacies and 229 city council 
positions.  The PRD, for its part, has reserved 30 percent of its 
candidacies.  Both parties are also reserving 15 percent of their 
candidacies for future alliance partners. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U)  The PLD and PRD leaderships responded to the publicity 
afforded disgruntled losing candidates by threatening disciplinary 
measures against those who continued to air their complaints 
outside party channels.  PLD Secretary General (and Senate 
President) Reinaldo Pared vowed to expel party members who 
"propagated disorder," while PLD Election Committee Chairwoman 
Alejandrina German stated that the party was considering expelling 
four officials responsible for major balloting irregularities, 
including Peravia Governor Bienvenido Montero, who allegedly 
removed 30 ballot boxes from voting locations when it became clear 
that his favored candidates were not prospering.   PRD Election 
Committee Chairman Hugo Tolentino also threatened "intransigent" 
party members with expulsion, but later offered to welcome 
defectors back to the fold if they repented their ways. 
 
 
 
 MIXED RESULTS FOR WOMEN 
 
--------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  By law, at least one-third of each party's nominees must 
be women.  In the PLD, only 27 women won nomination for national 
deputy as opposed to 86 men, while only eight women won mayoral 
candidacies as compared to 81 men.  According to the JCE's Rosario, 
however, the practice is for parties to run candidates of different 
genders for mayor and deputy mayor, thus, if a man wins the 
nomination for mayor, a woman will get the nod as the candidate for 
deputy mayor.  Rosario added that the JCE will not register a 
party's candidates unless that party complies with the minimum 
quota of female candidates.  Consequently, he explained, the 
parties may find that they will need to appoint women as many of 
their reserved candidacies. 
 
 
 
A CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTACLE? 
 
------------------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  A lower court judge in Elias Pina Province, on 12/21/09, 
issued a ruling annulling the PRD's reservation of the senatorial 
candidacy there, and ordered the party to register the 
pre-candidacy of one Plinio D'oleo Moreta and to hold a primary 
election to select its senatorial nominee.  The judge held that the 
PRD's reservation of this candidacy violated D'Oleo's 
constitutional "right to be electable."  JCE member Aquino opined 
that this ruling would be quickly reversed on appeal, as the 
constitutional "right to be electable" is modified by the phrase 
"in conformance with the law," and the law permits parties to 
reserve candidacies. 
 
 
 
OFFICIAL NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES IN JAN/FEB 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------------------- 
-- 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U)  Although political parties have until 03/17/10 to register 
their candidates with the JCE for the May elections, both the PLD 
and PRD plan to do so by early February at the latest, in order to 
commence their campaigns.  PRD President Miguel Vargas Maldonado 
has stated that his party will announce its official list of 
 
 
 
nominees on 01/17/10, and that he will travel nationwide to lobby 
voters for the party's full slate.  The PLD has yet to set a date, 
with Secretary General Pared predicting that it will be soon after 
01/26/10, so as not to conflict with the proclamation of the 
revised constitution on that date, and so as to give the PLD 
sufficient time to reach a full agreement with the PRSC and other 
smaller allied parties on incorporating their candidates into its 
list of nominees. 
 
 
 
COMMENT 
 
--------------- 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The primary process was both a plus and a minus for 
Dominican democracy.  On the positive ledger, the voting was mostly 
peaceful and the tabulation of votes apparently mostly fair.  On 
the downside, the leadership of both major parties, through their 
reservation of the most important congressional and municipal 
candidacies,  limited the exercise of internal party democracy and 
ensured that they would maintain their strangleholds over their 
respective political organizations.  END COMMENT. 
Lambert