US embassy cable - 03SANTODOMINGO7132

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 007132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA AND DRL 
NSC FOR SHANNON AND MADISON 
LABOR FOR ILAB 
TREASURY FOR OASIA-LAMONICA 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR, PGOV 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTIONS #6: PRD'S RUMP: HATUEY, 
HATUEY, HE'S OUR MAN 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 5759 
 
1.  (SBU) Following is the sixth in Embassy Santo Domingo's 
presidential election series: 
 
PRD'S RUMP: HATUEY, HATUEY, HE'S OUR MAN 
 
Party President Hatuey De Camps was the winner of the rump 
nationwide primary election on December 7 organized by his 
dissident faction of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party 
(PRD).  De Camps and two other "anti-re-electionistas" ran in 
a field of three candidates.  They had refused to participate 
in the PRD primary scheduled for December 14 in which 
President Mejia will compete for the nomination against three 
other pre-candidates.  The De Camps group vow fidelity to 
their version of the PRD's traditional opposition to 
presidential re-election. 
 
The December 7 primary result gives the opinion of a minority 
-- about 19 percent -- of the PRD's estimated 1.6 million 
members and an even smaller slice of the electorate.  With 72 
percent of the 3000 voting sites reporting, De Camps won 64 
percent of 302,000 votes counted and Senator Ramon 
Alburquerque and Jose Rafael Abinader each won 18 percent. 
According to the press, some PRD headquarters remained closed 
for the primary, and in those areas the dissidents had to set 
up polls at personal residences or on the street.  Some of 
the sites attracted few voters.  Tropical storm Odette dumped 
heavy rain on the island the night before the vote. 
 
The real PRD event will be the December 14 primary. 
President Mejia faces three challengers -- Vice President 
Milagros Ortiz-Bosch, Secretary of State for Tourism Rafael 
"Fello" Subervi, and former PRD president Enmanuel Esquea -- 
who have agreed to pool their votes behind the highest 
vote-getter of the three.   Mejia is still the best bet. 
 
Candidates registered for the December 14 primary have 
petitioned the the National Elections Board (JCE) to set 
aside the decision of the PRD National Executive Committee 
under Hatuey's chairmanship authorizing the December 7 poll. 
Party statutes give De Camps, as party president, authority 
to call primary elections, and only a very close legal 
interpretation by the JCE could set it aside. (The JCE ruled 
on December 5 on a factional dispute within the opposition 
PRSC, disallowing actions by both groups but favoring the 
party's president and presidential candidate against 
challengers who claim to have more rank-and-file support.) 
 
The protracted nomination struggle within the PRD has 
consumed its leaders' energies and left former President 
(1996-2000) Leonel Fernandez of the opposition PLD sitting in 
the catbird seat. The PRD must recover from its multiple 
splits in the next few weeks to have any chance of offsetting 
popular discontent with Mejia by challenging Fernandez's 
record and creating a credible alternative to the "once and 
future" president. 
 
2.  (U)  Draft: Bainbridge Cowell. 
KUBISKE