Teleantillas (Channel 2 in Santo Domingo and Channel 9 in Santiago) and Telesistema (Channel 11) have accepted a request by the Catholic Church and are offering unlimited free time for a debate between the three principal candidates for the presidential election in 1996. The two stations jointly said that such a debate is of capital importance for the forthcoming electoral process. The two channels are owned by the same person. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesús Lopez Rodríguez made the suggestion that the politicians should debate the nation’s problems and the measures they would take in the case of their winning the election.