2004 – Page 289

Transport union representatives met with President Hipolito Mejia yesterday and informed him of their decision to increase public transport fares to RD$10. Antonio Marte, spokesman for one of the country’s larger transport unions, CONATRA, explained that the recent increases in fuel prices had obliged them to take this measure. The hike brings the union members’ …

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Banks posted signs yesterday advertising US dollars at RD$50, despite all efforts to reduce the exchange rate. The unofficial rate is estimated at RD$51, according to the newspapers. El Caribe links the peso devaluation with the attempt to reform the electoral law, saying that the proposed controversial Ley de Lemas is undermining public confidence and …

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PLD deputy Abel Martinez said on Miguel Guerrero’s CDN morning talk show that the electoral reform proposal is but another of the political games the PRD plays. He said that the bill has rerouted the attention of the nation away from more pressing problems, such as the RD$50-to-US$1 rate of exchange and the calamitous economic …

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The latest twist in the maneuverings in the electoral reform saga is a bid by the three PRD Presidential pre-candidates Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Rafael “Fello” Subervi Bonilla and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero to dodge the Ley de Lemas or Ley de Voto Preferencial Presidencial trap by standing as independent candidates. Under the proposed Ley de Lemas, …

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There is already one independent candidate, the journalist Raul Perez Pena (“el Bacho”), who makes some acerbic observations about the issue of the splintering of political parties in his Listin Diario column. He concludes that one of the arguments against the electoral reform bill, that it will only serve to further splinter the divided political …

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If the three PRD hopefuls achieve making changes in the current law, others such as the PRSC’s Jacinto Peynado might also opt to stand as independents. In Peynado’s case, this might seem more attractive than standing as a second PRSC candidate, should the Ley de Lemas go through. Peynado, who is undergoing treatment in a …

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Meanwhile, the Ley the Lemas itself is generating more and more resistance. The Diario Libre assesses that it is unlikely to be discussed by the Chamber of Deputies today as planned. Many deputies are threatening to boycott the debate, in an attempt to deprive the proposed law of the quorum needed for a decisive vote. …

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Criticism of the Ley de Lemas has come from all quarters, and the Central Electoral Board (JCE) is no exception. Speaking at a business lunch yesterday, former JCE president Juan Sully Bonnelly branded the proposed law “barbaric”, “divisive” and “anti-democratic”, saying that there was no time for any such reform to be implemented in any …

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The newspapers are reporting a sharp increase in the number of illegal attempts to cross the Mona Passage from the eastern Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. These clandestine journeys are often made on overloaded, fragile vessels known as “yolas” and many travelers meet a grisly end in the shark-infested waters of this stretch of ocean. …

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Reporters from El Caribe say that the Dominican Republic negotiating team was stopped dead in its tracks when the United States team placed a position paper on the table that repeated the terms of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and requested that 85% of US exports be received with no taxes. According to the …

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