Political analyst Pedro Catrain warned that if the Junta Central Electoral, the government body in charge of organizing the 2002 municipal and congressional elections, overrides the will of opposition parties PRSC and PLD, it could bring on a major crisis. The opposition parties have called for the implementation of the electoral law in time for the 2002 elections. News reports indicate that sectors within the ruling PRD party want to continue to allow a political party to choose the order in which its candidates will be elected when a voter votes for the party. The new system, supported by the PRSC and the PLD, enables voters to vote for an individual among several presented by the party. It would no longer restrict voters to only those candidates chosen by the party. Last week, three principal executives of the JCE resigned over the matter: Henry Lizardo, general manager of Informatics; Hector Mota, interim director of the Computer Center; Natividad Gonzalez, deputy director of the same department. “Undoubtedly everyone knows about the strong PRD presence within the Junta,” explains Catrain. “If the JCE rejects the demands of the two opposition parties, and Dominican society in general which has favored the new system, we are going to have a Junta that will not have the credibility nor legitimacy to administer the next congressional and municipal elections,” said Catrain. President of the JCE, Manuel Ramon Morel Cerda, downplayed the resignation of his technicians, saying that no one is indispensable, not even himself. He announced the electoral court would decide today on whether to go ahead with the more democratic voting system for 2002.
