Santo Domingo?s Mayor Roberto Salcedo proudly touts a major achievement: having kept the city clean of outlawed political propaganda throughout the course of the presidential election. The consistent removal of propaganda material that violates city norms during the campaign period has produced savings of RD$18 million to the city government. Salcedo said that in the past city governments had to spend the next six months cleaning up after the election and taking down the approximate 60,000 posters that politicians had posted all around. ?This is the first time the city government of the National District has taken such a rigid stand to preserve the city from the visual contamination that has besieged us in the past,? he told El Caribe in an interview. Salcedo said his city government would establish fixed areas in the city where propaganda would be permitted for the promotion of political parties.
Salcedo said a crew of 1,988 workers toiled for six months removing the posters until the political parties got the message.
Meanwhile, El Caribe points out that in the nation?s second largest city, Santiago, the city government of Jose Enrique Sued is in turn appealing to the political parties to remove propaganda in the next 72 hours. Sued did not attempt to control the placement of political propaganda in his city.