US embassy cable - 03SANTODOMINGO6669

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 006669 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, DR 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION SERIES #2: PRD AND PRSC -- 
STRETCHING UNTIL THEY BREAK 
 
1.  Following is the second in Embassy Santo Domingo's series 
on the 2004 presidential elections: 
 
(begin text) 
 
PRD and PRSC  - -  STRETCHING UNTIL THEY BREAK 
 
(Meetings sponsored over the weekend by rivals in the parties 
provided the spectacle of splits and the prospect of 
breakdown.) 
 
Rival groups in the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) 
convened their competing versions of the PRD National 
Executive Committee (CEN) on November 15, with sharply 
contrasting outcomes.  Following his November 13 "open 
letter" to President arguing against a re-election effort, 
CEN chair Hugo Tolentino Dipp declined to attend either 
event. 
 
The PRD CEN meeting at the Hotel Embajador presided by 
Secretary of Culture Tony Raful endorsed proposals negotiated 
 
SIPDIS 
between the "Project for Hipolito" (PPH) and three PRD rivals 
to keep open the lists for presidential nominations until 
November 30, to select the winner on a "50 percent plus one 
vote" basis, and to confirm the results a week after the 
vote.  They selected Peggy Cabral, widow of the PRD,s 
charismatic leader Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, to organize a 
convention on December 14.  Featured participants along with 
President Mejia,s campaign manager Secretary of Agriculture 
Eligio Jaquez were three cooperating rivals for the 
nomination - - Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Rafael 
Subervi, and Enmanuel Esquea.  The 550 members of this 
832-member CEN were two hours late in starting their event 
but made up for it with their enthusiasm.  They elected a 
full list of party officials and confirmed session president 
Secretary of Culture Tony Raful as President of the PRD. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
At the same time, across town at the offices of the Socialist 
International, a meeting of 1071 members of the other, rival 
PRD National Executive Committee of 1300 faithful was chaired 
by PRD President Hatuey Decamps, fierce opponent of 
"continuism" in presidential politics.  Decamps announced 
that he would not, after all, have to carry out his published 
intention to suspend Tony Raful from the post of acting PRD 
president, since Raful had provided a letter of resignation 
that same day.  In fact, this version of the PRD CEN chose 
the absent Raful to serve as vice president of the party. 
They elected a full list of party officials and gave Hatuey 
Decamps the authority to fill any vacancy and to set the date 
of a national convention (on November 18 he designated 
December 7, with confirmation of the results on December 14; 
the Political Committee of the Hatuey rump congress voted to 
bar the President from registering a candidacy for 
re-election). 
 
While the PRD constituted itself formally into two rival 
organizations, the Reformist Social Christian Party (PRSC) 
was moving rapidly in the same direction.  On November 13 the 
PRSC Executive Council formally suspended former presidential 
candidate Jacinto Peynado and two senior supporters for 
failing to respect party discipline.  Peynado,s group had 
adamantly insisted on far-reaching changes in party 
leadership and insisted on overturning the March 2003 party 
selection of Eduardo Estrella as the PRSC presidential 
candidate.  They claim that Mejia's PPH tampered in that 
election, throwing it to Estrella with the intent of 
weakening the party.  Peynado and supporters formally 
appealed their suspensions to the National Elections Board. 
 
Peynado was in Miami for medical treatment, but his son, the 
previously suspended supporters and PRSC members said to 
constitute two-thirds of the membership of the National 
Executive Committee met on Sunday, November 16, at the San 
Carlos Club.  They voted to expel from office PRSC President 
Rafael Bello Andino and several other senior officials but 
named no replacements for them.  Sitting as observers at the 
pro-Peynado conclave were notables from the PRD, the PLD and 
lesser parties.  A third PRSC aspirant to leadership, 
Francisco "Quique" Atun, was not present but has managed to 
keep up cordial contacts with both groups. 
 
Leonel Fernandez of the PLD made a point of scheduling a 
successful political rally the same weekend with the "Somos 
Mas" faction of his party, which served previously as the 
party campaign vehicle for his rival Jaime David Fernandez 
Mirabal.  His message: "Those who cannot govern themselves 
are in no condition to govern the country." 
 
(end text) 
 
2.  Drafter:  Michael Meigs 
KUBISKE