Two of the major newspapers (Listin Diario and El Caribe) headlined yesterday’s passage of the electoral reform bill, or Ley de Lemas through the Senate. While the law is now known as the Presidential Preferential Vote Law, it is apparently a case of “same church, different pew” and will now be sent the Chamber of Deputies. The controversial changes to the law that governs national elections have drawn opinions from all political and social sectors in the Dominican Republic. As a result of yesterday’s approval, the commission that monitors the Central Electoral Board (JCE) met for hours yesterday with business leaders and prelates of the Catholic Church. In a brief statement to the press, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado said that the commission urged the full electoral body to reject the so-called Presidential Preferential Vote Law and to hold the May elections under the existing laws, whether or not the controversial legislation is ratified. Nunez Collado said that the request by the commission was in line with statements made by the chief judge of the Administrative Chamber of the JCE, who told the press that even if the law was passed the JCE was not in a condition to implement the proviso in the next elections set for 16 May. A commission press release says: “The entire Electoral Board must clearly state that they are going to hold elections in accordance with the current law (275-97), the law that they have been working under; therefore, if they recognize that it is physically impossible under a new law, they must reject it; they are the first that must reject it.” The meeting was attended by the president of the Dominican Council of Bishops, Archbishop Ramon de la Rosa y Carpio of Santiago; the Bishop Emeritus of Santo Domingo, Francisco Jose Arnaiz; the president of CONEP, Elena Viyella; the president of the American Chamber of Commerce, Jorge Ivan Ramirez; and union leaders from Santiago and Santo Domingo.