US embassy cable - 03SANTODOMINGO7406

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 007406 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR, PGOV 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION SERIES #9: AMBASSADOR DISHES 
OUT U.S. MESSAGE ON ELECTIONS WHILE PLD SERVES UP VANILLA 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 7132 
 
1. (SBU) Following is number 9 in our series on the Dominican 
elections: 
 
AMBASSADOR DISHES OUT U.S. MESSAGE ON ELECTIONS WHILE PLD 
SERVES UP VANILLA 
 
Almost two weeks ago, on December 3, the Ambassador hosted 
senior reps of the opposition Dominican Liberation Party 
(PLD) to a lunch at his residence. For the third time in a 
month, PLD candidate Leonel Fernandez declined an invitation 
because of previously scheduled travel out of the country. 
Party Secretary Reynaldo Pared Perez and the PLD's sole 
national senator Jose Tomas Perez led the PLD group for 
discussion with Embassy staff. For this series of party 
ecounters the Ambassador also hosted the chair of the 
Elections Monitoring Committee (Comision de Seguimento), 
Monsignor Agripino Nunez, rector at the Catholic university. 
Nunez has been mediating between the political parties and 
the Elections Board in hopes of fostering a more positive 
electoral environment. 
 
USG POSITION: NEUTRAL AND FAIR 
 
The Ambassador set forth the U.S. position on elections: we 
are neutral with regard to candidates and will work with 
whoever wins. The overriding interest of the United States is 
to see a free, fair, transparent, and clean electoral 
process.  He told PLD guests of Embassy efforts to secure 
support for election observes and of his initiative in 
getting nine other Ambassadors to visit the JCE jointly to 
express their collective concerns. The PLD representatives 
responded very positively to this and appeared relieved to 
hear it. (Persistent rumors in Santo Domingo have held that 
the Ambassador and Embassy have been working to get President 
Mejia re-elected.) 
 
PLD ELECTION CONCERNS 
 
The PLD leaders lashed out against the JCE as their "most 
troublesome obstacle."  Their concern is twofold.  Six of 
nine judges are declared PRD supporters and five of those six 
are from Mejia's "PPH" faction. The PLD seriously doubts the 
judges' ability to maintain a neutral stance or even to take 
the elections seriously.  PLD indignation was fueled by 
reports that on November 29 President Mejia had received all 
five of "his" JCE judges.  (JCE President Luis Arias is from 
the PRD but not from the PPH faction.) 
 
Another problem for the PLD is the issue of control of the 
computer system and the civil register.  They alleged many 
examples of young adults (those most likely to vote PLD) 
trying to register for the first time and finding their names 
already on the rolls with photos and id numbers of older 
individuals.  They asserted that the wrong polling address 
appears on more than 900,000 registration IDs (cedulas), 
potentially a tactic to confuse the vote. (The law now 
requires that each polling booth serve no more than 600 
voters, a stipulation which has led to extensive 
re-assignments.) 
 
Another cause of PLD heartburn is misuse of government 
resources in the campaign, especially with involvement of the 
military.  PLD reps said that at a recent event for army 
retirees in San Pedro de Macoris, military officers 
distributed shoes and make promises of trousers and pension 
increases if Mejia is re-elected.  Campaign director 
Francisco Garcia and SecGen Pared Perez, strongly seconded by 
others, complained about campaign activities by senior level 
military -- citing the much-discussed amateur video that 
caught Army Chief of Staff Gen. Zorrilla Ozuna handing out 
money from a PPH envelope to people on the street.  They say 
this level of military involvement has not been seen in a 
Dominican election since 1978, when Balaguer made a last, 
furious bid at re-election. 
 
Tax reform was another theme.  Citing their comments to 
Treasury Under Secretary Taylor in his encounter with 
assembled opposition representatives, they argued the need 
for fiscal reform sooner rather than later.  They doubted 
GODR bona fides in negotiations with the IMF and raised fears 
that President Mejia would let the economy continue to crash, 
leaving the next administration -- theirs -- with nothing to 
work with.  The PLD does not want to inherit a crisis of 
governability. 
NOT ANSWERING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS 
 
The Ambassador asked for PLD proposals for dealing with tough 
issues like corruption and tax reform, noting that if 
victorious, the PLD would for at least two years face a 
Congress controlled by the PRD. The guests shrugged it off -- 
Fernandez had managed through two years of congressional 
opposition and is prepared to deal with it.  During the 
Fernandez administration the GODR doubled revenue with a 
lower level of taxes than now; good management would help the 
country eventually to recover and to excel.  (The PLD is very 
willing to take full responsibility for the economic growth 
experienced during Leonel's administration and is currently 
running an ad campaign comparing prices of goods to those of 
today under Mejia's.) 
 
The PLD reaction to the issue of corruption was not as 
comfortable.  Invited by the Ambassador to set forth PLD 
proposals to reduce corruption and to deal with the financial 
crisis, they demurred with the comment that their platform 
committee will have answers to all this by the end of 
December.  (This is the second time they've dodged the 
corruption issue with us.) 
 
In their summary, the PLD leaders stressed the importance of 
a USG voice in prodding all the players involved, especially 
the PRD and the Mejia administration, to play by the rules. 
 
COMMENT 
 
Recounted ten days later, this event sounds like a 
predictable exchange, even a bit dreary and unimaginative -- 
plain vanilla.  But it paid off.  The Ambassador was 
reinforcing the USG message and building trust.  The 
following week Assistant Secretary Noriega delivered the same 
message and more, big time, before the assembled Dominican 
Congress, and spoke privately to PLD Secretary General Pared 
Perez and PLD advisor Temistocles Montas in one of a series 
of contacts with the opposition.  When pushed by the press to 
express some indignation over U.S. "interference," both PLD 
leaders explicitly turned down the journalists' 
characterization. They saw no interference, in part because 
they knew the message ahead of time and they heard it again, 
in private.  And like other major political party leaders, 
they have the ear of the USG when they need it. 
HERTELL