The political parties participating in the dialogue sponsored by the high hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church is at a standstill. After five hours of conversations, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez said that the talks would be suspended until next week. A date for the next meeting was not announced, nevertheless. The PRSC insists in its position that the board of the Junta Central Electoral resign. The PRSC has criticized that the president of the board unilaterally elected by the PRD-majority Senate is a militant PRD man. The PRSC wants the board of the JCE to be persons without political partisanship, such as was the board that organized the successful 1996 election. The PRSC is represented in the talks by Leonardo Matos Berrido, Rafael Bello Andino and Joaquín Ricardo. The PRD supports the present board of the Junta Central Electoral and is proposing as a solution that two more members be elected, one representing the PRSC and another representing the PLD. The PRD is represented by Hatuey Decamps, José Rafael Abinader, Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero and Rafael Suberví Bonilla. The PLD proposes that two of the members of the court resign and be replaced by members chosen by the PRSC and the PLD. This formula would leave Manuel Ramón Morel Cerda as president, and Luis Ramón Cordero and Ana Teresa Pérez, against which there is no animadversion. The PLD is represented by Euclides Gutiérrez Felix, Norge Botello and Danilo Medina.
