US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO355

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000355 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, DR 
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS # 15 - PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS AS 
DOMINICAN CONGRESS POSTPONES DISCUSSION ON "SLOGAN LAW" 
 
REF: A. SANTO DOMINGO 00233 
 
     B. SANTO DOMINGO 00147 
 
1.  Following is no. 15 in our series on the Dominican 
elections. 
 
CONGRESS POSTPONES DISCUSSION ON "SLOGAN LAW" 
 
Dominican President of the Chamber of Deputies Alfredo 
Pacheco, postponed the January 15 congressional committee 
session when a block of Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC) 
congressional representatives walked out.  Since PLD congress 
reps were deliberately absent already, as previously 
threatened, this left the chamber without a quorum.  The 
first point on today's agenda was to have been a discussion 
on the revised version of the controversial "slogan law" 
(reftels A and B).  Pacheco announced that the bill would be 
placed on the agenda for debate next week. 
 
PRSC spokesperson Luis Reyes Ozuna said that the 
representatives had abandoned their posts at the direction of 
party leaders.  Reyes Ozuna took a swipe at the rival PLD, 
saying that PRSC members felt oppressed by them. "With the 
PLD buses bringing people here, this is no way to legislate." 
 
The planned demonstrations against the "slogan law" were 
probably supported in part by the PLD, as the party that has 
the least to gain from the law.  However, most prominent 
among the peaceful crowd of several hundred were civil 
society groups Participacion Ciudadana (PC) and Fundacion 
Institucionalidad y Justicia (FINJUS). They carried placards, 
waved copies of the Constitution and sang. 
 
The "slogan law" has become a hot topic in political circles, 
rivaling stories on USTR Robert Zoellick's visit and FTA 
negotiations.  The full civil society "Elections Monitoring 
Commission" headed by Msgr Agripino Nunez met January 14 and 
endorsed their board's unanimous rejection of the draft law. 
A full-page ad in "Hoy" on January 15 signed by 60 retired 
police and military officers -- half of them formerly of flag 
rank -- fiercely rejected the proposal as unconstitutional. 
The omnibus NGO "Coalition for Transparency" petitioned House 
of Representatives President Pacheco to stop action on the 
proposal because of its unconstitutionality. 
 
Proponents of the law had already agreed to submit it to the 
Supreme Court for an advisory opinion after passage but 
before the signature into law.  Our own reading of the 
revised version of the "slogan law" -- now labeled the 
"preferential vote law" -- as circulated earlier this week is 
that it conflicts directly with Article 90 of the 
Constitution ("When no candidate obtains an absolute majority 
of the valid votes, a second election will be carried out 45 
days later.  Participants are limited to the two candidates 
who obtained the greatest number of votes in the first 
election.") The PRD-sponsored draft provides in contrast that 
"participants in a second round are limited to the leading 
candidates of the two parties having received the most valid 
votes in the first round." 
 
President Mejia's three in-house PRD rivals have been 
scrambling.  Early in the week they declared that they would 
join forces and back one of their number under the proposed 
new arrangements.  On Wednesday they jointly filed a petition 
to the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional certain 
articles of the current Electoral Law which requires 
candidates for the presidency to be sponsored by a political 
party. 
 
President Mejia is in a "win-win" situation on this issue. 
The PRD convention is scheduled to go ahead on Sunday, 
January 18, with Mejia running against two relative unknowns 
and certain to take the nomination.  He will be on the 
ballot, no matter what the outcome of the "slogan law" debate. 
 
 
2.  Drafted by Angela Kerwin. 
HERTELL