The Partido Revolucionario Dominicano attributed their strong vote toll to the strength of the party. Party followers say that a grand majority of PRD voters turned out to vote as a tribute to party leader Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez, the party’s candidate to mayor for Santo Domingo, who died barely a week before the elections. Furthermore, they say that the PRD candidates were more attractive to voters than the PLD candidates. Many of the PLD candidates were former PLD government officers that resigned their posts to run for congress or municipal positions. PRD followers, say the vote was a rejection of the government exercise of the Fernández administration. The Partido de la Liberación Dominicana members attributed the party’s poor showing to errors at the end of the campaign – such as party secretary general Lidio Cadet’s handling of the death of Air Force General Luis Santiago Pérez at the hands of PLD fanatics, and the untimely statement of President Leonel Fernández during a meeting of international intellectuals in which he favored an increase of taxes. Both errors were capitalized by the PRD. Others say that the PLD directors felt that with money all could be achieved. The PLD spent millions in this campaign hoping to position its candidates. The PLD said that their former ally PRSC’s anti-PLD campaign slogan, "los come sólos," caught on and played on the arrogance of several government officers and PLD politicians. Dr. Joaquín Balaguer campaigned himself in Santiago during the final days of the campaign urging Reformistas to vote for "rice and beans, but not with eggplant (the purple color of the vegetable was in reference to the PLD). Balaguer in the 1996 presidential elections had urged his followers to vote for the PLD, which resulted in a victory for that party. The PRSC subtle support of the PRD is said to be responsible for the PRD victories in La Vega and San Cristóbal, for example.
