Dominican Republic chooses president amid violence, fraud allegations

by Victor Flores

Monday, May 17, 2004

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP): Voters in the Dominican Republic Sunday chose between a current and former president to lead the country amid fraud allegations and election-day violence in which three people were killed.

Authorities said three people were killed shortly after polls opened in Barahona, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Santo Domingo. Police said two brothers were shot to death by an army sergeant, and relatives of the victims killed the sergeant in revenge.

Five other people were wounded in a separate incident in Villa Altagracia, 45 kilometers (28 miles) further west, authorities said.

Allegations of fraud were flying even before voting began in the Caribbean state.

Challenger Leonel Fernandez, president from 1996-2000, warned last week that if the governing party wants "to stay (in power) by force ... we will remove them by force."

Official results were not available, but exit polls showed Fernandez had gained 54 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff.

He had charged Friday that some 420,000 voters had been eliminated from the voter rolls to favor the government, but the Central Election Board later said it had found no irregularities.

President Hipolito Mejia, candidate of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party, guaranteed clean elections in his final campaign speech.

"We promise the cleanest, most transparent elections in our country's history," Mejia said, adding that he deserved a second chance, after four years of financial scandals and economic upheaval in this country of eight million people.

Some 6,000 citizen volunteers and hundreds of Organization of American States observers were on-hand to ensure a problem-free election.

The election board said it was checking its voter roll against the political parties' lists to ensure a fair election.

On Wednesday, Fernandez supporters broke into the main election authority claiming to stop ruling party members from obtaining a copy of the election registry in order to fraudulently help secure the president's reelection.

To defuse the situation, the Central Election Board opened the election registry to inspection by all political parties and observers from the OAS before sending copies on to the voting districts.

There is a persistent "political culture of fraud that can't be ignored" in the Dominican Republic, said Javier Cabreja, director of Citizens Participate, a respected independent election watchdog.

Asked what impact fraud might have on the upcoming vote, Cabreja said: "It's difficult to say, but it can be decisive if the race is very tight."

Fernandez's lead in the polls has shrunk over the past three months. Earlier on, he was polling 65 percent, but that fell to around 50 percent, while Mejia's backing has risen steadily from 13 percent to 33 percent.

Fernandez and Mejia are the clear frontrunners in a crowded field and they are expected to face off in a second round June 30 if neither receives more than 50 percent of the votes.

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