President Leonel Fernández and former President Joaquín Balaguer published full page advertisements in the national dailies calling for the resignation of the recently elected judges of the Junta Central Electoral. The public letter was read yesterday afternoon from the National Palace by the President’s press director, Adriano Miguel Tejada. Present were Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina, and former Secretary of the Presidency during the Balaguer administration, Rafael Bello Andino. A DR1 translation of the document reads as follows: "The undersigned, doctor Leonel Fernández, President of the Republic, and doctor Joaquín Balaguer, former President of the Republic, want to warn the country that the unilateral election of the judges of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) made recently by the senators of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD), brings about the loss of trust and credibility in the organization of the elections, which in turn produces a pernicious situation for the future of Dominican democracy. "We consider it a moral duty of the judges recently appointed to resign because the reduction in their credibility as impartial arbiters of the year 2000 electoral process subtracts legitimacy from their appointments. "We believe, also, that if the recently chosen judges of the Junta Central Electoral do not resign, they will be creating a crisis for the next presidential elections, a fact that would signify a step backward for the advancement of democracy in the Dominican Republic. "We appeal to the good judgement and sense of the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, to seek, in a joint manner, a harmonius solution to a problem that Dominicans have shown the maturity and sense of responsibility necessary to resolve. "We believe that the maintenance of the democratic stability of a nation rests on the level of commitment that the organizations and its leaders have in the democratic system, as well as in the flexibility and spirit of equilibrium that one may have to push on always in favor of the national interest."
