Interviewed yesterday on the television program "Uno + Uno," former Vice President and 1996 Reformista Party (PRSC) presidential candidate Jacinto Peynado warned that the Party’s head, ex-President Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, should not attempt to pick, suggest or impose his own candidate for the presidential elections in the year 2000. Tapping a particular favorite "is not advisable," he asserted, because the party militants will not accept a candidate imposed by the top. Peynado, picked in recent polls as the man most Dominicans would like to see as the PRSC presidential candidate in the next elections, has advocated the use of primaries. In reaction, PRSC Secretary Johnny Jones yesterday voiced support for the use of primaries, and noted that Dr. Balaguer also expressed support for the concept at the last Party convention. He advised Peynado to stop worrying, that Balaguer would not try to impose his own candidate for the party. Jones and a member of the Party’s Central Executive Directorate, Leoncio Almánzar, both opined that Peynado would be the best presidential candidate for the PRSC in the year 2000. Jones said that the organization Peynado built during the 1996 elections gives him a support base with which it is impossible for him to lose the party’s nomination. Almánzar amended that Peynado enjoys the widest support of the Dominican people, and not just for his recent work, but rather for more than 15 years of public life.
