In his political maneuvering yesterday, President Hipolito Mejia managed to keep his three prime PRD opponents, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero and Rafael Subervi Bonilla, from getting on the ruling PRD convention ticket. Only Santiago physician Frank Joseph Thomen, who has no known political track record but is described by news commentators as a close personal friend of the President’s, will be on the ballot for Sunday’s PRD convention. According to the report carried in today’s El Caribe, the PRD organizing commission has told the three adversaries that their pictures will not be on Sunday’s ballot. The commission told the three contenders that it was too late to print up new ballots to include them. The decision comes after Thomen was accepted as a candidate just last Sunday, and considering that the three were supposed to compete with Mejia in the party convention that was aborted in mid-December. The winner of Sunday’s voting will be the official candidate of the PRD, since the convention has the sanction of the Central Electoral Board (JCE). On 25 January, the PRD will proclaim the winner as their official candidate, although the three contenders have gone to court to try and stop the process. The legitimacy of the electoral commission headed by Peggy Cabral will be tested in the First Civil and Commercial Court of the First Instance for the National District. The chief judge of the Civil and Commercial Court has withdrawn from the case in view of the fact that he is married to the daughter of Rafael Subervi, one of the plaintiffs.