The today president of the Chamber of Deputies, Héctor Rafael Peguero Méndez was strongly opposed by the leading faction within the PRD that had proposed Winston Arnaud. Politically astute, Peguero Méndez was able to win the election with the vote of nine fellow dissident PRD members, that are now calling themselves the Bloque Peñagomista within the Chamber. The Chamber is now split into three forces – PRSC with 17 members; the PLD with 49 members and the PRD/Acuerdo de Santo Domingo with 73 members. News commentators said that the Chamber of Deputies now enters into a period of virtual paralysis. Peguero Méndez, a 12-year term congressman, is a close friend of Danilo Medina, his classmate from the South, and former congressional and party colleague. (Note that the PLD was born when the PRD split into two groups.) With the division within the PRD, the party, despite having won with majority in the lower house, is now subject to having to negotiate with the other political forces in order to pass any bill or motion. Peggy Cabral, the widow of the former leader of the PRD, the late José Francisco Peña Gómez, in a press release, attributed Peguero Méndez’s win to the inadequate handling by some PRD directors of the present institutional crisis that affects that political organization. She called for party unity. The PRD is a party where internal conflicts are the norm, but in the past her husband, José Francisco Peña Gómez, was known as the chief conciliator and the party was always able, even though at last minute, to resolve its differences. Reputable polls point to the fact that the PRD is the party with the largest following. Peña Gómez’s widow recalled that during a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee on 8 August she warned that outside interests were attempting to destroy the unity and discipline within the party. She had favored a conciliatory position, such as would have been the presentation of a third candidate by the party, Hugo Tolentino Dipp, instead of Peguero Méndez or Winston Arnaud. The party rejected the position. The PRD’s internal conflict reflects the fact that the party has yet to decide who will be the choice for presidential candidate in the year 2000 presidential elections. The party is seen as the strongest political force to win the next presidential elections and several party members have announced their aspirations to be the party’s presidential candidate.
