Every newspaper in the country headlines the results of yesterday?s voting: Leonel Fernandez is the President-elect. And somebody missed out on a RD$10-million bet.
According to the Diario Libre, Fernandez won the first round of voting and President Mejia was ?magnanimous? in conceding defeat without any excuses.
Hoy newspaper reported that JCE Bulletin No. 6, with half of the votes tallied, gave Hipolito 35.29%, Leonel 54.99% and Eduardo Estrella 9.12%. El Caribe simply says, ?Leonel Presidente?. The PLD leader is cited as saying, ?The confrontation is over.? La Informacion, from Santiago de los Caballeros, says that ?Mejia recognizes the triumph of Leonel Fernandez.?
Although the Central Electoral Board (JCE) had barely released their first numbers, President Mejia had been in closed meetings with his election team, and at 11:40pm the incumbent President admitted defeat. This was truly an historic occasion, since it is the first time in living memory that a candidate has conceded the election before midnight on election day.
Former President Fernandez, now President-elect, extended an olive branch, according to El Caribe, by saying that Mejia had demonstrated ?gallantry and generosity? in accepting defeat.
Oh, and the RD$10-million bet? Last week an unnamed person placed a quarter-page ad in La Informacion, offering up RD$10 million if the voting results concurred with the CEDEMERS poll that gave President Mejia 42% and virtually guaranteed a second round of voting. The unidentified gambler gave a lawyer?s name and phone number to place the bet.
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