US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO3056

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SANTO DOMINGO 003056 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA AND DRL 
NSC FOR SHANNON AND MADISON 
LABOR FOR ILAN 
TREASURY FOR OASIA-LAMONICA 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WJ 
DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI; USSOUTHCOM FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, DR 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTION SERIES #52: DEMOCRACY WINS 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 2968 
 
1.  (SBU) Following is number 52 in our series on the 
Dominican presidential election: 
 
Democracy Wins 
- - - - - - - - 
 
Voting was calm and orderly across the Dominican Republic 
during the 12-hour polling period on May 16, in what many 
consider to have been the best-conducted vote in national 
history.  In the evening, scattered worrisome incidents 
suggested that the counting phase might become troubled. 
With the benefit of hindsight, the brief but strong evening 
remarks on national television by Msgr. Agripino Nunez, head 
of the civil society Elections Monitoring, Commission, who 
was flanked by several ambassadors (including the U.S. 
Ambassador) and the OAS representatives, are viewed as a 
defining moment.  President Mejia conceded the election early 
in the vote count, at 11:40 p.m., and Dominicans everywhere 
awoke the next day knowing who had won.  The elections are 
widely viewed by Dominicans as a success and a source of 
pride.  Many Dominicans have told us that the USG role was 
positive and crucial. 
 
Here are the details: 
 
During the day of voting, Dominican election officials, party 
coordinators, and electors cooperated effectively across the 
country.  In contrast to the heated campaign, May 16 was 
characterized by massive, orderly voter turnout and a 
relatively smooth, albeit slow, electoral process. 
 
Election day officially began at 6 a.m. as more than 12,000 
voting tables opened across the 32 provinces of the Dominican 
Republic and in 11 foreign cities with large expatriate 
Dominican populations.  Observers reported some initial 
disorganization and, in isolated cases, late openings due in 
part to incomplete election materials.  Most voting sites 
were relatively organized. International observers, including 
50 volunteers from the U.S. Embassy community, found 
Dominicans engaged in the process, animated, and generally 
cordial to one another. 
 
An early morning altercation between PLD and PRD party 
loyalists outside a polling station in Barahona, a 
southwestern province, provoked an exchange of gunshots that 
left three persons -- criminals with personal conflicts among 
themselves -- dead. The incident was the worst stain on the 
democratic process.  The Central Electoral Board (JCE), in 
accordance with law, suspended news programs on several 
government-run television channels for blatantly biased 
(pro-Mejia) reporting.  Later in the day, there were 
unconfirmed reports of isolated confrontations. 
 
Dominicans welcomed the presence of some 270 international 
observers led by the OAS and IFES delegations, and more than 
6500 national observers from Dominican NGO Participacion 
Ciudadana.  There were few problems with voter rolls and 
virtually no attempts to bring campaigning or campaign 
material into voting areas. Many sites reported average 
turnouts of 60 percent by mid-day and more than 70 percent 
when the polls closed at 6 p.m. 
 
First-hand experience matches press reports 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
In addition to fielding 50 observers who became accredited to 
the OAS Mission, Ambassador Hertell led a bus tour of polling 
and other election sites during the day.  He was accompanied 
by the ambassadors in the Dominican Republic from the 
European Community, Canada, and Spain, and by two IFES 
observers (Colombian ex-President Pastrana and Judy Black). 
The DCM also led a U.S. "information central" from which we 
took reports from the OAS-assigned observers, officers posted 
at certain critical locations, and newscasts.  The 
Ambassador,s party was briefed regularly during the day and 
evening, and shown copies of the "information central,s" log 
of developments.  All in all, the ambassadors saw first-hand 
in Santo Domingo the display of orderly daytime voting that 
the "information central" was hearing about nationwide. 
Ambassador Hertell shared his positive reaction with the 
press. 
 
Tension rose in the evening 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
After the polls closed, tensions rose. 
 
In a few locales, domestic or international observers were 
excluded from the vote count. 
 
In addition, although procedures stipulated that each voting 
station's election officials and party delegates were to fill 
out and sign each vote-count tabulation ("acta"), this did 
not always happen. At a number of polling places, especially 
at those in Santo Domingo and Santiago, PRD party delegates 
refused to sign vote tally sheets carrying the manifest bad 
news of a PRD defeat. 
 
Moreover, poor organization, and possibly resistance, at the 
134 municipal election boards ("juntas municipales") caused 
bottlenecks as election officials sought to deliver and 
register the sealed bags containing the paper ballots and 
"actas."  At "juntas municipales" election officials 
discovered many irregularities in documentation and referred 
tally sheets to adjudication.  Few of the "actas" were being 
scanned and transmitted to the JCE.  By mid-evening, lines up 
to three blocks long were visible at "juntas municipales" in 
the capital and elsewhere.  Delays were accompanied by 
increasing rumors of fraud by government officials.  Tempers 
were rising. 
 
Finally, embassy volunteers and other observers reported a 
handful of mostly unconfirmed reports of intimidation or 
confrontation. We heard, for example, that PRD campaign 
official Guido Gomez Mazara, formerly legal adviser to Mejia, 
was reported to have entered a voting station accompanied by 
armed guards who intimidated the persons inside. 
 
Civic action and reaction 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
As irregularities were reported, head of the civil society 
Elections Monitoring Commission ("Comision de Seguimiento") 
Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, fearing the worst, called 
insistently to persuade the Ambassador and several other 
ambassadors to call on JCE President Luis Arias at 9 p.m. to 
raise their concerns.  The Ambassador, armed with the 
"information central,s" news, agreed.  He mobilized the 
other ambassadors, who met with Nunez and JCE Judge Luis 
Arias at the JCE.  Arias was aware of the most serious 
incidents and said they had been handled by election 
officials and the electoral police. 
 
As the group went out to attend a previously scheduled OAS 
press conference at the JCE, 
Nunez surprised those present by taking the microphone. 
Flanked on camera by the U.S., EU, Canadian, and Spanish 
ambassadors and by the OAS, he delivered an impromptu 
impassioned appeal -- live, on camera -- for the President's 
supporters to respect the people,s will as expressed in the 
election results.  He said, in part: 
 
" . . .The President said, in his last appearance, that 
whoever wins, wins; that's the President's word.  And I would 
invite all of those who are, gentlemen, supporters of the 
President to respect that affirmation by the President.  Let 
no one think about trying to stand in the way of the process. 
 Remember what happened in 1978 when the administration of 
that time tried to avoid acknowledging popular will, (and 
remember) the response of the people and of the international 
community.  That's why I wanted to come here, pro-actively. 
I would not wish either for the people to go through bitter 
times or for the international community to have to make 
reproaches to sectors of our society. 
 
"This country has embraced democracy.  And nothing and no one 
will be able to obstruct this process. . . .  Let no one even 
imagine staining this process. . . .  Let God enlighten all 
Dominicans.  Let no one think of perverse ideas, may they 
respect as a sacred thing this civic day's work given by the 
Dominican public to the politicians, to the observers, to the 
national media and to the foreign press that is here to bear 
witness.  May God help us and illuminate and give strength to 
all who have the responsibility of protecting the ballot 
boxes in the various polling stations until they can provide 
their results to the JCE, which standing above all criticism 
has given us an example of patriotism!" 
 
Nunez's vehemence and his reference to the 1978 three-month 
election deadlock between then-President Balaguer (PRSC) and 
President-elect Antonio Guzman (PRD) stirred passions rather 
than calming them. They completely overshadowed the measured, 
positive statements subsequently made by OAS Deputy Secretary 
General Luigi Einaudi and by IFES delegation head (and former 
Colombian president) Andres Pastrana, both of whom praised 
the election process. 
 
President Mejia is reported to have been furious at Monsignor 
Agripino's appeal.  Mejia had already told the Ambassador by 
telephone earlier in the evening that he would "do the right 
thing" if there were no change in the trend of the earliest 
returns (52 percent PLD to 38 percent PRD). 
 
At 9:30 p.m., a Penn, Shoen & Berland exit poll with 56 
percent for Fernandez was leaked to CNN, but not carried in 
local media.  Simultaneously, PLD numbers sent out by e-mail 
to party sympathizers showed the same trend.  The JCE issued 
its first bulletin at 10:40, based on a mere 2.8 percent of 
the 12,000 polling stations, showing Fernandez with 54 
percent.  The Ambassador spoke briefly with President Mejia 
by telephone about that time; Mejia again emphasized his 
intention to do the right thing and abide by the will of the 
people.  At 11:40, before the JCE was able to publish any 
further preliminary results, Mejia went before television 
cameras to acknowledge Fernandez's victory and to offer his 
congratulations. 
 
Mejia's action has no precedent in Dominican politics.  It is 
widely believed to have facilitated the rest of the vote 
count and prevented violence and intrusion into the electoral 
process.  His declaration immediately cut the growing 
late-night tension.  It stopped diehard PRD members from 
their efforts, planned or spontaneous, to draw out the 
already long and painful process.  By acknowledging defeat, 
Hipolito Mejia offered an 
unexpected and illuminating example of democratic fair play, 
both to his own party and to the rest of those watching. In 
the following days, our Dominican contacts, almost without 
exception, fairly glowed with pride about the successful 
conduct of the national presidential elections. 
 
The U.S. Government in general, and the U.S. Ambassador in 
particular, have received constant praise in the past week 
from our Dominican contacts and the Dominican public and 
press, first for supporting -- both rhetorically and 
financially -- free and fair elections and international 
observers for them; second, for indicating our support of the 
winner of the election, whichever candidate won; and finally, 
for our own visible monitoring of the election process, 
which, we are told, was both calming and a visible reminder 
that the international community would not tolerate 
illegitimate leaders.  The OAS mission also praised the USG 
effort on behalf of free and fair Dominican elections as a 
model that works. 
 
2.  (U)  Drafted by Michael Meigs, Clare Ribando, and Lisa 
Kubiske. 
 
3.  (U) This report and others in our elections series are 
available on the 
SIPRNET at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo.  
HERTELL