The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) discarded the recourse presented by the Hipolito Mejia faction of the PRD opposition party that demanded their inclusion in the National Executive Committee (CEN), alleging they had been irregularly excluded by the president of the organization, Miguel Vargas Maldonado. The TSE said that the recourse is not admissible because evidence to the contrary has not been obtained. The Central Electoral Board (JCE) on Monday said it could not supply the list that had originally been submitted by the PRD for the 2009 party internal election in which Vargas Maldonado was elected. The Mejia group says that Maldonado has changed the list of voting members to exclude those that are not partisan to his decisions. The appeal for the presenting of the list had been made by 69 party members, followers of former President Hipolito Mejia.
The Central Electoral Board (JCE) told the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) on Monday that it does not have the requested list of members of the National Executive Committee that were authorized to vote in the 27th National Ordinary Convention of the PRD that took place on 27 September 2009. The dissident group disputes recent decisions by party president Miguel Vargas Maldonado to call a convention in 2014. Vargas’ presidency ends this month. Vargas has called a new meeting of the CEN.
The TSE is presided over by Judge Mariano Rodriguez who has asked the Ministry of Interior and Police and the National Police to guarantee public order around the party headquarters or wherever the CEN meeting is held. Rodriguez has said that decisions of the TSE are final.
Political commentators say that the bottom line is that it is in the better interests of the ruling party that the division within the PRD may continue. The president of the JCE, Roberto Rosario is the former official representative of the PLD in the electoral body.
Political scientist Cesar Perez said that while the impasse that has divided the PRD continues, the PLD will continue to rule. As reported in El Caribe, political commentator Rosario Espinal also said that for the PLD to continue in power, it needs the crisis within the PRD to continue. “The numbers are there so that if the PRD cannot be unified, then it will not win the next elections. Undoubtedly, the crisis in the PRD facilitates the political wins for the PLD,” she commented in El Caribe.
Recently, former President Leonel Fernandez forecast that the PLD would continue in power through 2036. He also announced at the Congress of the PRD held on Sunday, 14 July, that the party knows about his aspirations for the 2016 presidential election.
Politólogos dicen que mientras el PRD esté en crisis seguirá PLD