El Caribe publishes an interview today with Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, one of the key figures in Sunday?s elections because of his resounding comments made during a nationally televised news conference from the pressroom of the Central Electoral Board (JCE). Amid suspicions, rumors and reports of incident, and faced with political and diplomatic pressures to act, the monsignor vigorously condemned any further delays in announcing the initial results. With several reliable results in hand, he talked to President Mejia and reported what was being observed at the JCE. An hour and a half later the President, in a truly historic political move, announced his opponent?s victory, thereby quashing any further attempts to defer the inevitable.
Alicia Ortega interviewed the prelate and got his take on what happened that evening. According to Monsignor Agripino, at about 5pm he received reports from opposition parties that said armed civilians were surrounding polling stations and that people were being detained, specifically in Santiago. The United States ambassador, Hans Hertell, invited him to have coffee along with other prominent diplomats, and the cleric could see that many were worried for two reasons: firstly, that state-run television stations had been violating the Electoral Law and, secondly, because the US ambassador told the group that he had information from around the country that attested to serious transgressions ? and he named names.
Asked about when the group decided to go to the Electoral Board offices, Nunez Collado said that they had planned to go at 10pm when the first numbers of the vote count were scheduled to be released (but weren?t). A call from Luis Arias, the JCE president, urged them to go over at once in view of some worrisome events were taking shape.
Asked about his thoughts at that moment, Monsignor Nunez said he reflected back to 1978, but said that he didn?t feel that any military personnel were involved because he had talked to the Minister of the Armed Forces on Thursday and received assurances that nothing was afoot. However, he called Soto Jimenez again and received new declarations that the military had things under control.
Arriving at the JCE offices at around 8pm, the monsignor found Santiago Murray, the OAS chief observer, and the adjunct secretary from the OAS in a cloud of consternation. The ambassadors arrived shortly thereafter, and met with the JCE judges. The US ambassador was very specific and again named names. The Spanish ambassador was quite emphatic and said that the time had come to get to the bottom of things.
The monsignor suggested that they talk to the press, and the judges were divided as to whether they should go down to the pressroom or not. Luis Arias went down first and the rest decided to follow. The president of the Electoral Follow-Up Commission was designated by the ambassadors and the OAS representative to speak on behalf of the group.
Asked to recall what he was feeling during the tense press conference, the university rector said that he was emotional and that he remembered what had happened in 1978 when the vote count was interrupted by military intervention.
When Ortega asked Monsignor Nunez if the JCE judges knew what he was going to say, he said his speech was most likely a surprise for them, and that he had thought it fitting that all the ambassadors were to be present also. Agripino was firm in repeating that there was no reason for the vote count to be stalled, and pointed out that Santiago Murray was worried because the counting hand nearly come to a stop in the National District. The monsignor confirmed that as he spoke he had in his hands the preliminary OAS quick count results and the Gallup and other exit polls, all of which coincided in the prediction of a landslide victory for the PLD candidate. He said that if he spoke harshly, it was because he also knew that the virtual stoppage of vote counting all over the country did not occur by chance. The monsignor called on the forces at play to respect the will of the people and to acknowledge the true winner of the democratic process, thereby diffusing the tensions and acting as a catalyst for Hipolito Mejia?s admission of defeat.