The political secretary of the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano asked that party leader, 91-year old Dr. Joaquín Balaguer decide now if he will be the party’s candidate in the year 2000 presidential elections. Dr. Balaguer will be 93 years old for the 16 May 2000 election. Federico Antún Batlle said that the party, today the third political force in the country, needs to choose its candidate early in order to concentrate all forces in that one person. "The candidate of 2000 has to be defined before February," he said. "If Joaquín Balaguer wants to be the candidate, he has to say so because we are not a party of one person. Balaguer represents the most important sector of Dominican nation, perhaps the majority sector, but he has to speak up." Recently when asked if he would be the party’s presidential candidate for the year 2000 election, Dr. Balaguer smiled enigmatically. Balaguer has traditionally left the decision of whether he will run for the final weeks of the campaign stretch. Antún feels this is not good enough anymore. "To continue playing that ‘maybe not’, ‘tomorrow I’ll say’, ‘now is not a prudent moment to make that decision,’ ‘at the right time,’ no, no, no. The party is not in condition for that," said the political secretary of the party. In his opinion, the PRSC cannot afford waiting another day without deciding who will be the party’s presidential candidate. He mentioned as possible contenders to the PRSC candidacy: Dr. Balaguer himself, Donald Reid Cabral, Jacinto Peynado, Carlos Morales Troncoso, Amable Aristy Castro, Eduardo Estrella, César Arturo Abréu, José Hazim Frapier, Tony Rivera, Víctor Gómez Bergés, Ramón Pérez Martínez, Angel Lockward, Roberto Santana, Luis Toral, José Enrique Sued, Licellotte Marte de Barrios, Zoila Martínez de Medina, and Alexandra Izquierdo.
