The ruling PRD party held another convention, or primary election, in which members were given the opportunity to choose their Presidential candidate. The first such gathering took place in December and resulted in victory for party president Hatuey Decamps, an avid opponent of Presidential re-election. Decamp’s convention was later declared invalid by the Central Electoral Board (JCE). Yesterday’s convention saw just two pre-candidates in the running – President Hipolito Mejia and Frank Joseph Thomen, who registered just over a week ago. While the votes are still being counted, with a final result expected later today, all indications are that Mejia will be granted an overwhelming victory, with about 95% of the vote. This convention, with only one candidate with a realistic chance of polling a significant number of votes running against a political neophyte, came about as the result of much political maneuvering. The three remaining PRD pre-candidates Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Rafael “Fello” Subervi Bonilla and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, the first two of whom arguably have enough of a political following to pose a threat to President Hipolito Mejia’s ambitions, withdrew from the convention, believing that fraud by the President’s PPH faction was inevitable. Last night, former President Salvador Jorge Blanco, who presides over the convention organizing committee, said, “It has been a total success for us, and the challenge that now faces us as a party is to fulfill with precision the route that lies ahead of us until 16 May (the date for the Presidential election).” Jorge Blanco estimated that about half of the PRD’s supposed 1.6 million registered party members had voted in the poll. The newspapers carry triumphant double-page advertisements with an adaptation of the traditional leftist slogan, “The PRD united shall never be defeated.”
The votes are being tabulated at the Hotel Santo Domingo in the capital. The government-intervened Listin Diario reports that voting around the country proceeded peacefully. It was reported that many supporters of Ortz Bosch and Subervi Bonilla cast their votes for Hipolito Mejia, who, upon hearing this, remarked that this indicated the PRD was not divided at the grassroots level. Mejia was touring several voting stations in the capital and surrounding areas, and, according to the Listin, was greeted by cheering supporters at all times. For his part, Frank Joseph Thomen proclaimed that the day was “a celebration of democracy that everyone should emulate”. Diario Libre’s back-page “De buena tinta” column reveals that many delegates for Mejia’s rival, Dr. Thomen, did not even know his name, and in one case a PRD delegate ostensibly representing Thomen at a voting center referred to him as “Jose Augusto Thomen,” The columnist challenges the notion that voter turnout was high, citing the example of Villa Maria in the capital, where just 200 votes were cast despite there being 1,195 registered members on the center’s list. In contrast, the Listin claimed sparse numbers only in Bonao and Puerto Plata.