PRD vice-president Rafael Subervi Bonilla complained yesterday that there are more than 100 challenges of candidates of the PRD that were substituted in the ballots. He warned that the Central Electoral Board (JCE) could not announce a candidacy unless the candidate presents the act of the party’s assembly that elected the candidate for the position. In his comments, Subervi also said that the JCE is not respecting the decisions made by the political parties. He went on to say that there were plans within the JCE to remove PRD leaders from their candidacies. He repeated his call for the JCE to respect what the electoral inspectors have said, and that candidates must be supported by official documents from the party’s convention. Subervi said “If the JCE does this (substitutes candidates), it will have to answer for it, because they are acting in an illegal fashion.” He cited the case of one Rosa Cruz that was proclaimed candidate for deputy but who was substituted by another name in the Central Electoral Board.
The JCE has requested about 100 observers to assist next May’s election process. As reported in yesterday’s DR1 News, the JCE has already contacted observers from the Organization of Amercian States (OAS), and is now reaching out to the Knights of Malta and the governments of France, Belize, Italy, Panama, Japan, and Colombia. The United Nations has also been invited to send observers. As in previous election years the election board invites all of the electoral magistrates for the different countries that are signatories of the Tikal Protocol, which includes Central America and the islands of the Caribbean.