The news daily Listin Diario continues to trickle out the results of its latest poll, conducted with the Spanish polling firm Sigma Dos. Today’s headline-maker is that among acknowledged PLD partisans, Vice President Jamie David Fern?ndez Mirabal is no longer the favorite to be the Party’s candidate in the year 2000 presidential elections. Secretary of the Presidency and PLD strategist Danilo Medina has jumped from 33.8% firm support in a December poll to 39.7% in the current sounding, while Vice President Fern?ndez has dropped from 37.1% to 32.8%. When asked which candidate they sympathize with (as opposed to definitely intend to support), the gap widens a bit more: 42.4% for Medina vs. 34.4% for Fern?ndez. The other two candidates – Tourism Minister F?lix Jim?nez and Norge Botello – both have support in the low single digits. Asked to rate the qualities of the four "pre-candidates," most respondents rank Medina and Fern?ndez equally in most areas, the notable differences being higher leadership capacity (97.1%) and international recognition (93.1%) for Fern?ndez (vs. 92.0% and 80.5% for Medina, respectively), but Medina rated as having a greater capacity to win an alliance with other political parties (96.9% for Medina, but only 86.9% for Fern?ndez).
