In a commentary in the newspaper Hoy, columnist Bienvenido Alvarez Vega explained why there is so much interest in the five judges of the Junta Central Electoral remaining in their posts until after the 1998 congressional elections. The five judges organized and supervised the first non-traumatic and undisputed elections since 1966.
Columnist Alvarez Vega says that the judges will have not completed their work until their proposed electoral bill is passed by Congress and the congressional elections are held in 1998. In 1994, the presidential and congressional elections were separated. He asks if, in the 19 months before the next congressional elections the country can afford the discussions to choose new judges, wait for them to learn the mechanisms of the Junta and then organize the election.
Alvarez Vega mentioned that some maintain that there are congressmen who may use delaying tactics in choosing the new judges so that the congressional election of 1998 may have to be aborted, and their expressed wish to remain in Congress until year 2000 may be fulfilled, and thus the importance of the five judges remaining in their posts.
President Leonel Fernandez has asked them to remain but the judges responded by saying that they intended to leave office. They are now under pressure to reconsider their decision. Major civic and business organizations, from the Consejo Nacional de la Empresa Privada to the Grupo de Accion para la Democracia, have requested that they stay on to finish the work they began two years ago.