Former Vice President Carlos Morales Troncoso told El Siglo newspaper that the promises and high hopes created by the election of a PRD government are vanishing. He said this explains the social protests of recent weeks. The Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC) opposition leader said the Mejia government has erred from the economic point of view because it has not been able to control its own spending. He criticized the government for not having implemented an internal saving policy in order to carry out public works and instead chosen to borrow the needed money. Morales Troncoso, who was a Vice President during PRSC-Balaguer administrations, said the government should not promise what it cannot fulfill. He said the PRSC aspires to win 12 to 14 senate seats and 45 deputy seats during the 2002 congressional election that will take place 16 May 2002. The party hopes to recover the provinces of Puerto Plata, Santiago, La Romana, La Vega, San Cristobal, Bani, Pedernales, Samana, Hato Mayor, Elias Piña, and San Juan de la Maguana. And it hopes to maintain its congressional posts in La Altagracia and San Pedro de Macoris provinces. He said the 2002 election is the party’s greatest challenge. He urged all PRCS men and women to work together. In the 1998 election the party obtained an all-time low of only two senators, 16 deputies and 12 mayors. Morales favors modifying the Constitution after the congressional election of 2002 to allow a president to seek re-election for a second four-year term and then not be allowed to run for office again, such as happens in the US. But he wants the Constitution to maintain the 50%+1 vote needed to win the presidency in the first round, keeping the congressional and municipal elections separate from the presidential election.
