El Caribe reports today on an order to print a copy of the voting list for the
PRD. Tensions mounted at the JCE at 11pm after the printing to be done late in
the evening was leaked to the PRSC and PLD. Administrative Chamber judges Nelson
Gomez, Rafaelina Peralta, Roberto Rosario and Ramon Hernandez Dominguez, as well
as a commission of the Participacion Ciudadana civic group, were summoned to the
JCE offices. JCE President Luis Arias did not attend the urgent meeting.
Following the meeting of the political party delegates and the judges, which
lasted until 1:30am and at which JCE President Luis Arias was not in attendance,
Judge Gomez told the press: ?Nothing is happening here.? He said the issue would
again be discussed the next day. PLD delegates Cesar Pina Toribio and Danilo
Diaz, however, demanded an explanation on the spot. ?We find it strange that the
PRD has requested an additional copy and that the JCE is working so late at
night,? said Pina Toribio. Dar?o de Jesus and Osvaldo Mendieta, delegates of the
PRD, justified the printing. ?It was a request made following all legal
requirements to the president of the JCE,? said de Jesus. He said he had a
signed letter from Arias authorizing the printing of the PRD voters list.
Mendieta, as reported in Hoy newspaper, defended the decision saying that the
copy was being made to ?facilitate the work of the party, given that many PRD
voters were excluded from the list that was originally delivered.?
Upon arriving, Judge Nelson Gomez ordered that the printing be stopped and said
no judge of the chamber was aware of any order. Luis Arias was called but did
not visit the JCE locale.
All the parties have already received an authorized digital copy of the voters
list, including the PRD. The political parties each paid RD$709,000 for the
original copies of the voters list they received from the JCE, as reported in
Hoy.