President Hipolito Mejia has called for dialogue between the various groups in the ruling PRD party, in order to avert a complete split, according to this morning’s papers. Speaking on the day of the party convention on his weekly television interview “Una vez a la semana”, he said, “The doors of unity are open, (I’m) waiting for the other aspirants to come and talk with me.” Mejia described himself as a humble person, who had been respectful with all his critics, including those on the left, and said he was willing to come to an understanding with his political rivals, for the sake of party unity. Writing in his “En solo cien palabras” in Hoy newspaper, Emilio Lapayesse pulls no punches: “The old party has been badly mocked – betraying its history, its ideals and its dead. The leader’s family, sadly fragmented, has also deserted: The national majority, impatient for justice, now lacks genuine representation. There is a vacancy for its defenders”. El Caribe quotes Mejia as saying he is not scared of the PLD’s Leonel Fernandez. During the same television interview the President branded Leonel as disrespectful, irresponsible, cowardly, arrogant and devoid of character, in his warnings about military participation in the political process and the transparency of the elections. “I am not scared of him or of anybody else”, said Mejia.