The president of the Central Electoral Board (JCE), Luis Arias, disputed statements made by PRD delegates that they had a document signed by him authorizing the printing of a second voting list for the PRD party.
As reported in El Caribe, Judge Luis Arias had contradictory versions regarding the authorization of the printing from within the JCE. In his morning comments to the press, Arias said that the technical delegates were aware of the irregular printing of an official voters list for the ruling PRD party. But in a press conference in the afternoon at the JCE he said: ?I did not know they were printing the voters? list. That never should have been done.?
Hoy reports today that the JCE head admitted there had been ?an alteration? of internal procedures wherein the PRD tried to obtain an advance copy of the voter rolls. Arias told reporters that he put together a commission to look into this matter and report back to the JCE. The chief of the electoral board said these steps were taken after it was discovered that an order that enabled the IT director, Miguel Angel Garcia, to issue the printout did not originate from any member of the board. Nonetheless, Garcia said he had an authorization from the president of the JCE (Arias), but that the decision to do the work so late at night was his. He refused to let the press see a copy of the authorization to print.
Hoy furthermore reports that the signature that authorized the printing of the voting list for the PRD is that of an assistant of Arias who supposedly obtained the approval of Judge Rafael Diaz Vasquez, a member of the Administrative Chamber and who President Hipolito Mejia has described as his ?man at the JCE.?
Arias said the printing procedure required the approval of all the JCE judges, but this did not occur.
Judge Rafaelina Peralta, who represents the interests of the PRSC at the JCE, described the irregular printing attempt as ?inconceivable,? as reported in Hoy.
The confusion surrounding these events undermines the credibility of the JCE just three days before the 16 May election.