Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic, appeared on TV yesterday in his ?Fe y Acontecer? Sunday program, and seconded Monsignor Agripino Nunez, who on election night called on President Mejia to heed his own words that said ?He who has won, has won.? This message to the statesman and the nation at 10:30pm on 16 May are said to have averted a major attempt at electoral fraud perpetrated by supporters of President Mejia. The PPH-PRD delegates at the voting stations obstructed the flow of information to the Municipal Central Electoral Boards, thus impeding the tabulation of votes and the release of this information to the public. By that time, the Penn Schoen & Berland polling firm had already released the results of their exit poll in Spain which pointed to a clear win for former President Leonel Fernandez with a breakdown of 56% for the PLD, 31% PRD and 11% PRSC.
As reported in El Caribe newspaper, the cardinal congratulated the monsignor and the group of foreign ambassadors who emitted the message live from the Central Electoral Board offices and denounced the attempted fraud. ?Once the polling stations were closed, there were incidents involving those gangsters who are always around, uncontrolled pistol-bearers without any morals, who were planting terror and shoving people,? recounted the prelate.
On the other hand, the cardinal criticized the reticence of the JCE judges. Despite the fact that several sources were in possession of poll results that clearly attested to a PLD win, the JCE judges did not act until Monsignor Agripino Nunez spoke to the nation, after which President Hipolito Mejia himself admitted defeat and the attempts to derail the electoral process were aborted.