On Friday, the last official day for campaigning, Mejia?s proponents focused on a supposed telephone conversation in which PLD candidate Leonel Fernandez gave instructions to an unidentified businessman to hoard dollars in order to destabilize the economy and improve their chances of winning the election. The alleged communication was aired on TV and radio, as well as on the Internet, with a message that voters should read it before deciding who to vote for. Promptly thereafter, Fernandez held a press conference to charge that the telephone conversation in question had been prepared from speech tracks provided to the PRD by RTVD and taken from National Dialogue participations. ?I want to say that that conversation never happened. It was put together from tapes obtained from Channel 4, the state television station, and events held by the National Dialogue,? Fernandez stated. He denounced that the tape had been put together by a group of foreigners staying at the Hotel V Centenario, and was merely part of the dirty campaign tricks of the Mejia government in its quest for reelection.
Hipolito Mejia, for his part, twice defended the tape. Speaking from the Presidential Palace on Friday, President Mejia said the tape had been made by someone in New York and that the Dominican authorities only learned about it yesterday. Mejia said that the tape was ?the best proof? that the PLD has conspired to worsen the economic crisis and played a part in the collapse of Dominican banks last year. On Saturday, President Mejia reaffirmed that the telephone tape was authentic. As reported in Hoy newspaper, President Mejia said he was willing to facilitate the tape to international organizations so they could certify that it was the voice of the PLD candidate.