The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) and several fellow judges discarded allegations that the electoral process could be tainted by violence on 16 May. Dario de Jesus, the PRD delegate at the JCE, sent a letter whereby he forewarned the courts that the bloodshed that occurred in 1982 and 1986 could be repeated in the 2004 election. In the letter, De Jesus reminded that ?one Presidential candidate has expressed he will win the election by whatever means necessary ? good or bad.?
As reported in El Caribe, Judge Luis Arias, the president of the JCE, said that the judges are confident in their security systems. ?We hope that this letter is but a product of his [de Jesus?] imagination,? he said. Arias told the press he had requested that de Jesus provide information to corroborate his fears regarding the security of the JCE.
Judge Salvador Ramos, the president of the Chamber of Disputes of the JCE, when speaking to the press also downplayed the allusion to possible violence, saying the population need not fear because the ?judges have all the balls of the world.?
Hoy newspaper?s editorial today says that the letter from the PRD delegate should be cause for concern and serve to alert all Dominicans, as it asks: ?In whose interest would it be, for what pretext, to appeal to fears so as to disrupt the 16 May election?? The editorialist writes that the security organizations of the state, the JCE, and civic groups should demand more detailed information regarding what has led the PRD delegate to make such a warning, so as to disarticulate any such preposterous plan in advance.
Meanwhile, PLD Presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez, as reported in El Caribe, said: ?I think the PRD should clarify to the country what it is that they are pretending to do with the JCE, because it is like announcing in advance what they want to do, because only they could do that.? Recent polls place Fernandez with enough voter support to win in a first round. PLD delegate to the JCE Reinaldo Pared Perez described the warning as ?irresponsible? and recalled that it has been the PRD that has been involved in this kind of violence in the ?82 and ?86 elections.
PRSC president Rafael Bello Andino doubted that ?such extremes would be reached.?