PRD politician Jesus de la Rosa says there is no possibility of President Hipolito Mejia making it to a second round. In an analysis in Hoy newspaper today, De la Rosa, who has been minister of sports and education during past PRD administrations, looks at the numbers for past elections. He points out that during the first round of the 1996 Presidential election, PRD candidate Jose Francisco Pena Gomez received 41% (1,192,211 votes), Leonel Fernandez received 39% (1,130,523 votes), and PRSC candidate Jacinto Peynado received 15% (435,504 votes). At the time, the polls said a second round was most likely.
He recalls that during the second round in 1996, Fernandez received 51.3% of the vote and Pena Gomez received 48.7% of the vote. At the time, Joaquin Balaguer, the undisputed leader of the PRSC, urged his followers to vote for Fernandez.
With 13 days to go before the 2000 presidential election, the independent Spanish firm poll Demoscopia showed Hipolito Mejia was first with 44% of the vote, followed by Danilo Medina of the PLD with 33.2% and Joaquin Balaguer with 22%. Mejia would go on to win the election with 49.8% of the vote. Despite the fact that Dominican electoral law requires a second round be held if the vote is not at least 50%+1, in 2000 the second round was called off by consensus of the opposition candidates.
De la Rosa asks how, with less than a month to go before the current Presidential election, can Mejia reduce the more than 27-percentage point lead that Fernandez has over him. ?Where will the Mejia candidacy grow with a rejection level of 60% and with the undecideds estimated to be barely 2.7%?? he asks. He adds that Hipolito Mejia has not been able to top the 30% preference level that the PLD?s Danilo Medina had going into the 2000 Presidential election, and therefore doubts that he will be able to do so now.
De la Rosa is very critical of the administration of Hipolito Mejia. ?Hipolito Mejia, Presidential candidate of the PRD in the 2000 election, promised a frugal spending government, austerity in consumption and efficiency in investing,? he writes. And then concludes: ?But if anything can characterize the administration of Mejia it is inefficiency and waste. Thus his low levels of acceptance and the high rejection rate of the statesman and re-election candidate.?