President Hip?lito Mej?a, appearing on the program ?Una Vez a la Semana?, broadcast on the state-run TV station, again rejected the proposal for a plebiscite or use of independent polls to choose the PRD?s presidential candidate. He said that the PRD directors should instead organize the party primary to select the PRD presidential candidate. Mej?a would also prefer to have the party?s directorship renewed during the same convention, which he expects to take place in ?three or four months.?
According to Mej?a, he will next week appoint a commission of cabinet members to work full time on his re-election campaign. He mentioned that Agriculture Minister Eligio Jaquez, Customs Director Vicente S?nchez Baret, presidential legal advisor Guido G?mez Mazara, Health Minister Jos? Rodriguez Soldevila and Interior Minister Pedro Franco Bad?a would each take a leave of absence to devote themselves fully to the Hip?lito Presidential Project, (PPH).
President Mej?a also disregarded the results of the recent Gallup poll. ?They can do all the polls they want, and they should publish them, but within a context of seriousness, you cannot do a survey when two parties have already elected their candidates and then list ten candidates for another party ? what kind of system is that?? said the President.
The Gallup poll showed that 51.2% would vote for the PLD?s Leonel Fern?ndez and that the PRD presidential aspirants combined would get 26.5% of the vote, including 8.7% for President Hip?lito Mej?a. Eduardo Estrella, the presidential candidate for the PRSC, received 12.7% in the same poll, while 9.6% of those surveyed were undecided.
While Mej?a blames most of the country?s problems on external factors and the collapse of Baninter, he said that he feels the worst of the economic crisis to be over. ?I have no doubt we have come a long way, through very difficult moments, but no longer do we see a small light ahead, but rather a strong blaze at the end of the tunnel, for the benefit of all and so that we may learn from this crisis,? he said.
?I trust that the people will evaluate me on my honesty, my decisiveness, and courage,? Mej?a continued. ?We accept the challenge and may you be the jury, as the famous TV host used to say,? he concluded.
Diario Libre?s front-page photo shows the provisional land titles President Hip?lito Mej?a handed out in Villa Altagracia to 2,434 illegal occupants of land on Caterey sugar mill territory. The provisional titles bear an inset photograph of the President.