Wednesday’s papers indicated that those behind the proposed Ley de Lemas were asking that it now be postponed. Henry Sarraf, the PRD deputy and official architect of the controversial bill, also known as the Preferential Presidential Vote Bill, said yesterday that there is not enough time between now and the 2004 election date, 16 May, for Congress to approve the law and for it to be implemented. The Ley de Lemas would allow up to five Presidential candidates to stand under the same party banner and its opponents see it as a maneuver by President Hipolito Mejia to manipulate the vote to his advantage. Under the proposal, all the votes cast for the party’s candidates would automatically be transferred to the one who polls the most votes. Sarraf asked that the public and civil society organizations – which have been strident in their rejection of the proposal – support the law for the subsequent elections, such as the 2006 Congressional and Senate election and the 2008 Presidential election. He maintained that the law was “vital for the unity of all political parties, not just the PRD.” This morning’s Listin Diario reports that the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, has taken the Ley de Lemas off today’s agenda for debate in Congress. A week ago, when the proposed law was due to be discussed in Congress, there was a mass walkout by deputies from all three parties, and the debate had to be suspended because not enough members remained in the Chamber to fulfill the necessary quorum. Pacheco said he hoped all the rebel deputies from the PRSC and PLD, as well as the Hatuey Decamps faction of the PRD, would not be absent today. Several important projects are due to be discussed in today’s session, including the systematic financial risk bill. For her part, Peggy Cabral, a leading PRD activist and widow of the deceased PRD leader Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, who was passionately opposed to Presidential re-election, has said that the Ley de Lemas is the “best option” for the party. Cabral said she was surprised at Sarraf’s latest pronouncements to defer the electoral reform.