The PLD party, which this week was charged with violating the campaign ethics agreement, has asked for "fairness and balance" from the group that faulted it. Jose Tomas Perez, the party’s Secretary General, said that the report of the Followup Commission of the Electoral Ethics Pact (CSPEE) was one-sided when it attacked the PLD’s lack of respect for the PRD’s presidential candidate. Perez described the PRD’s campaign as "filled with distortions and lies and the manipulation of data." The CSPEE report, released yesterday, excoriated the PLD for portraying Hipolito Mejia as a man with "emotional problems." But Perez retorted, "isn’t it denigrating when they [the PRD] say that the government is corrupt, and 300 office holders have been charged with corruption, but no proof is offered?" The PLD’s fiscal management, which has recently come under attack by Mejia, was defended by Temistocles Montas, Technical Secretary to the President, who said that Mejia "continually makes unfounded charges, deceiving public opinion." Montas was responding to the contention that the Fernandez administration will leave a RD$30 million debt when it leaves office in August. The next government will inherit the government in better financial shape than it was received in 1996, said Montas, adding that the Dominican government has the lowest rate of internal debt of any Latin American nation, around 5% of GNP.
