For the first time since their stunning rejection at the polls this past May 16, the central committee of the Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana (PLD) met in executive session yesterday. The party’s executive secretary, Juan Tomas Perez, informed the press that the group which includes President Leonel Fernandez and Vice President Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal voted unanimously to support the decision of their defeated presidential candidate, Danilo Medina, not to exercise his right to demand a second round vote. Medina and vice-presidential running mate, Amilcar Romero, received the second highest number of votes, while first place winner Hipolito Mejia, fell short of the constitutionally-required 50% + 1. Because Mejia lacked only a little more than 4,000 votes – out of 3.5 million votes cast – to obtain the absolute majority, and since his vote total was more than 100% greater than that of Medina, the PLD standard- bearer preferred to bow out. According to Perez, the party’s central committee congratulated Medina and Romero for conducting an energetic campaign. They also voted to organize a "bottom up" evaluation of their party’s organization when they met for their national convention this coming November 18.
