Hip?lito Mej?a won the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) primary held yesterday, Sunday, 20 June 1999. When 98% of the votes had been counted, he had received 73.39% of the vote or 118,839 votes. Earlier polls had showed he would win. Rafael Suberv? Bonilla, a former Mayor of Santo Domingo and Minister of Tourism, today deputy for Barahona, placed a far away second with 14.78% of the vote or 23,933 votes. Milagros Ortiz Bosch was third, with 9,795 votes, or 6.04% of the total. Hatuey de Camps followed with 7,338 for 4.53%, and Jos? Rafael Abinader received 2,004 votes, for 1.23% of the votes. According to the PRD statistics, the abstention was 87%. PRD listings show 1,259,529 million Dominicans registered as PRD voters, of which only 165,328 cast their vote. Rafael Suberv? did not agree with the results, and denounced fraud had been committed against him. He believes 300,000 persons were impeded to vote for him. Elsewise, the primary was uneventful. Thousands of PRD voters attended the 5,473 voting centers installed throughout the country. Of these 2,300 were located in Santo Domingo. Hip?lito Mej?a is an agronomist engineer, born in Gurabo, Santiago, on 22 February 1941. He has been a member of the PRD since 1978, when he accepted to be Minister of Agriculture in the government of the late President Antonio Guzm?n. In 1984 he was chosen president of the Bloque Institucional Social Dem?crata, a party founded by the late Jose Francisco Pe?a G?mez due to differences within the leadership of the PRD. In the 1990 presidential election Pe?a Gomez chose him as his running mate. In 1994, Pe?a G?mez chose Fernando Alvarez Bogaert as his vice presidential candidate. Hip?lito Mej?a has said his running mate in the 2000 election will be Milagros Ortiz Bosch. Ortiz Bosch was born 23 August 1936. She is a doctor of law with postgraduate studies in politics in Costa Rica. In 1963 she was assistant to her uncle, Professor Juan Bosch, when the later was elected President. Bosch was toppled seven months later. She is vice president of the PRD. She has been elected twice as senator of Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo is the most important electoral district in the country.
