The ruling PRD yesterday submitted a written warning to the Central Electoral Board (JCE) that said it might be subject to attacks during the May 16 elections, according to Hoy. The communique, which asked the electoral board to take measures to ensure that the violence of 1982 and 1986 is not repeated, was signed by political delegate Dario de Jesus. He recalls the death of Cloroaida de Tineo in a grenade explosion weeks after the 1982 election and other casualties caused due to gunfire during the 1986 election.
De Jesus says that the elections should not cost human lives and urged the JCE to take strong measures, such as metal detectors at the doors of the JCE building, to avoid the possibility of violence.
Interestingly, the PRD mention of the violence at the JCE during the 1982 elections is directly linked to Vicente Sanchez Baret, the former director of Customs in the Mejia administration and currently one of the foremost re-election campaign directors. History tells that when the results of the 1982 election came in, showing that Salvador Jorge Blanco of the PRD had defeated PRSC Joaquin Balaguer by 854,868 votes to 706,951, Balaguer?s followers, led by PRSC leader Mario Read Vitini, caused the announcement of victory to be stalled, at a time when the JCE judges were notably partisan to the PRSC. Then on 18 June, a grenade exploded at the JCE and the incident is known as ?El Granadazo.? According to the report produced by an investigative board composed of officers of the police and the Armed Forces, the grenade slipped from the hand of one of the bodyguards of then-PRD senator Vicente Sanchez Baret. Five people died in the incident, in addition to the one person mentioned in the PRD?s recent letter to the JCE. Another 20 were injured.
For more on violence at the JCE during Dominican elections, see http://www.ahora.com.do/Edicion1298/DEPORTADA/tema2.html
In a related story, PRD spokesman Tomas Hernandez Alberto cautioned the PLD against acts of violence if their candidate, Leonel Fernandez, does not win on 16 May, according to El Caribe. He said that Leonel has been creating the image that he will walk away with the election, but that more recent data the PRD has on hand indicates the candidates might end up in a statistical tie in the first round. Despite the opinion of Hernandez, all independent polls carried out by international companies published so far suggest that Fernandez will take the election in a first round. The same polls indicate he would comfortably take the election if a second round were necessary.