Hipólito Mejia, the presidential candidate for the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), spoke to the nation last night and promised to instate a institutionally-efficient government based on free market principles in order to reduce national social equities. Speaking in a short-sleeved shirt, he told the nation that he would strive for a socially responsible government, capable of bringing prosperity to the 50% of the nation that lives in poverty today. He accused the present government of creating a great disorder, an economic crisis because of the mishandling of the treasury, and a government credibility crisis, because of its lack of fulfilling commitments made with the different sectors of the population. He criticized that the government has only shown concern for meeting its international debts, forgetting its obligations to contractors and suppliers within the DR. He said that his technicians have strategies to restructure and renegotiate the terms of the debt to reduce it with relatively small investments, taking into account assistance from the governments of the US, Japan, France. He proposes a model of government that reduces the predominance of the President, the discretionary management of state resources and the granting of economic and social privileges to individuals and sectors. His government priorities are education, modernizing productive structures for an increase in food, decentralizing of hospitals to improve the health situation, drastic measures to preserve the ecology. He promised that no less than 40% of the administrative jobs of his government would go to women. And he promised to reform and modernize the state by decentralizing the power and strengthening the local governments. He envisions a soldiery state, but not a benefactor state. All independent polls show Mejía is the strong candidate to win the 2000 election.
