The three major parties, the Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. embassy, the Bishop of San Juan de la Maguana and the head of the Central Elections Board (JCE) all denounced the accusations of fraud brought by Marino Vinicio Castillo. Yesterday it was reported that Castillo, who currently serves as the country’s anti-drug czar but is also a consistent and flamboyant critic of politicians and governments, had charged the JCE was paving the way for a PRD victory, as evidence by voter roster irregularities and undelivered voter registration cards (cedulas). But PRD candidate Hipolito Mejia asserted that "under no circumstances" could a fraud be perpetrated, and he attributed the allegation to "desperate people who have no possibility of winning cleanly," The acting president of the PRSC party, Donald Reid Cabral, also dismissed Castillo’s charge, as well as a similar one offered by Alexis Joaquin Castillo (no relation to Marino Vinicio Castillo), who his own party’s Technical Election Committee chairman. The latter Castillo alleged that a fraud is being orchestrated by the JCE compelling by large numbers abstentions. "We aren’t staying alert to fraud because we can win the elections cleanly," said Reid Cabral. PLD candidate Danilo Medina similarly rejected the charges of fraud because, he said, "the conditions don’t exist to sustain it. The people won’t stand for it. Dominican democracy is now too mature." At a ceremony in the western province of San Juan de la Maguana, Linda Watt, U.S. Charge d’Affaires discounted the possibility of an electoral fraud. Speaking at the dedication of a U.S.-sponsored housing complex for 700 families made homeless by Hurricane Georges, the diplomat noted that "there are too many organizations monitoring the electoral process," which she listed. "With all that help, I believe the JCE will give the Dominican people the elections they want." She was seconded by Monse?or Jose Dolores Grullen Estrella, San Juan’s highest ranking churchman, who asked those in attendance, "Do you believe that, with so many intelligent people involved, there’s any possibility of fraud?" Fraud, said the bishop, belongs to "times past." Speaking in his own defense, JCE chairman, Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda appealed to the public to "close your ears to populist voices," that attempt to sew confusion and mistrust. When pressed by reporters to comment on the veracity of Castillo’s claim that the JCE wants to tilt the election toward the PRD, he exclaimed "Holy God! I have to say whether its true! Or its not true! Do you [reporters] have the slightest suspicion that this could be true?" Castillo has been "saying the same thing for a year and seven months," he said.
