Former President Leonel Fernandez (PLD), while campaigning in the Northeast, accused the government of breeding pessimism among Dominicans. He said the political patronage and populist style of the PRD government has resulted in government overspending to pay high wages to PRD party members to the general detriment of the economy.
?If the problem has a political origin, then the solution must be a political one,? he said in Samana. ?For all the people and for the country the answer is the same: the country went from progress to crisis when the PLD left office and the PRD took over, and so what is needed is to rid the country of the PRD in the first electoral round, and have the PLD return to power,? Fernandez told his followers in the Northeast.
The PLD has announced that its primary to select its candidate for the presidency in the May 2004 election will take place on 29 June.