The diplomat in charge of representing U.S. interests in the absence of a confirmed Ambassador to the DR, Linda Watt, raised many eyebrows in Santo Domingo yesterday with a visit to Central Election Board (JCE) President Dr. Manuel Ram?n Morel Cerda. Watt said that the U.S. "admired" the "laudable" work of the JCE and its importance in the strengthening of Dominican democracy. Every politician tried to put their own spin on the visit, while analysts puzzled over just what message the U.S. was trying to send. Dr. Morel Cerda, clearly pleased by the visit, did his best to portray it as a de facto endorsement of the present JCE membership. Reformista Party (PRSC) leaders suggested that Watts was simply underlining the importance of the JCE, and not necessarily endorsing its current membership. One Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) official, Norge Botello, suggested that the U.S. Embassy was better off staying out of internal Dominican affairs.The current JCE has been the source of political battles ever since it was appointed last August by the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD)-controlled Senate without prior consultation of PRSC and PLD about the appointees. Such consensus had been sought in appointing the prior board in order to ensure that it was one all parties could trust to be impartial. This consensus is considered by many to part of the reason the 1996 election results were not contested. After the August appointment, the PRSC filed a court case challenging the JCE membership, alleging that several members, including Morel Cerda, were PRD activists and thus incapable of being impartial. The PLD-controlled Executive Branch also began withholding or delaying delivery of budget moneys to the JCE, crippling its work.
