The local press is telling the stories of the attempts at fraud that kept Dominicans in suspense on Sunday evening, after the polling stations closed nationwide.
With the observers aware of the results of the three exit polls, the Dominican Republic lived through four tense hours as citizens awaited the outcome of the election. The president of the JCE, Luis Arias, had announced that their equipment would be able to provide results by 10 pm, but the clocked ticked on and bulletin No. 1 was not forthcoming. Meanwhile, cell phones, Internet chats and emails were communicating the unofficial results.
Diario Libre reports that the Judge Arias attributed the initial delay to the weather, as a slight drizzle fell nationwide. By this time, Arias was well aware that the trend was overwhelmingly in favor of the PLD candidate. Once the votes had been counted at the 12,000 voting stations, it was also well known that several PRD delegates had attempted to delay or impede the validation of the voter certificates, which occurred in almost all the voting stations of the larger cities.
Diario Libre says that the JCE judges were well aware of these occurrences. Most notably, the PRD delegate in the National District?s electoral court, Luz del Alba Tebenin, staunchly refused to validate the voter certificates of some 500 voting stations. The newspaper explains that judges Rafaelina Peralta (representing the PRSC), Roberto Rosario (PLD) and Rafael Diaz Vasquez (PRD) planned to visit the Santo Domingo municipal board, but at last minute sent Gilberto Herasme, director of the election.
Meanwhile, between 8pm and 8:45pm, one of the JCE judges placed a called to Armed Forces Minister Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, expressing concern about violent incidents in Consuelo (San Pedro de Macoris) involving Guido Gomez Mazara, the former legal advisor of President Hipolito Mejia, and another in Villa Altagracia, involving General Pedro Julio (Pepe) Goico, the former security advisor of President Mejia. There were several reports of polling stations surrounded by people armed and ready to steal the voting boxes.
Judge Luis Arias, motivated by Judge Roberto Rosario, then had Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado call Minister Soto Jimenez again, who reiterated that the law would be respected. Monsignor Nunez did not limit himself to speaking on the phone. He hurried over to the JCE for a meeting with all the JCE judges at 9:15pm. He arrived accompanied by the electoral observers from the OAS and several ambassadors, including those of the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain and the European Union.
As the JCE maintained silence, not being able to issue a bulletin as not enough votes had been tallied, the monsignor took action and delivered words that urged the nation?s highest authorities to respect the will of the Dominican people. Nunez Collado had enough information at that time to ascertain that the PLD was the clear winner of the vote.
Next followed an impromptu press conference, to which Diario Libre says several judges of the JCE attended against their will. The JCE, however, was still not providing any information to the general public, and there was a ban on any radio or television station airing the unofficial results. The monsignor and the ambassadors that evening also visited the Municipal Board of Santo Domingo, after which its president, Mariano Rodriguez, said during a TV interview that the visit had helped unwind the delegates who were placing obstacles in the quest to conduct the vote count.
News reports say there was a conversation between President Mejia and Monsignor Nunez in which the prelate tried to calm President Mejia down. Shortly after, at around 11pm, the first bulletin was issued, with less than 3% of the stations? results.
President Mejia soon after called a press conference to admit defeat, thereby ending the anxious wait and allowing the rest of the procedures to unfold as normal. The JCE issued Bulletin No. 2 shortly after midnight, No. 3 at 1:30am and No. 4 at 2am. By 1:05pm on Monday, 17 May, the JCE had issued bulletin No. 8 which declared Leonel Fernandez winner of the 2004 Presidential election.
Diario Libre reports today that the recently ousted president of the PRD, Hatuey Decamps, synopsized that Monsignor Agripino Nunez, the international observers, the OAS and the ambassadors of Canada, Spain, the European Union and the United States had had to fill in for the institutionally weak JCE.
International observer and former President of Colombia Andres Pastrana confirmed the attempts at fraud in statements he made to the AFP press agency.