NewsWhore
04-12-2010, 08:20 PM
With the exception of polls showing former Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch leading the race for Senator for Santo Domingo, the leading opposition party PRD is trailing behind the ruling party PLD+PRSC coalition. Writing in Hoy newspaper, Juan Bolivar Diaz analyzes the way that the internal divisions within the PRD have impeded the organization from creating a true front to capitalize on discontent with the government among middle class and low-income sectors in the run-up to the 16 May congressional and municipal election.
PRD party members presented a record number of disputed candidacies to the Central Electoral Board (JCE), after party leaders imposed candidates over those elected in primaries.
Diaz points out that party strongman and president Miguel Vargas Maldonado's direction of the party seems to have alienated former President Hipolito Mejia and politician Luis Abinader. Leading party figures Hector Guzman, Guido Gomez Mazara, Tirso Mejia Ricart and Hugo Tolentino have also had serious differences with the Miguel Vargas team.
Diaz speculates that Vargas and his strategists had attempted to take control of the party to impose candidates for May 2010, creating a "new PRD." "But the cost in terms of friction within the party and external discredit is high," he says. He writes that the Vargas team has neither been able to orchestrate an effective and efficient opposition to the government.
He says that the survey by the Cibao Economic Center, which has been accurate in predicting electoral results in the past, indicates that Milagros Ortiz Bosch leads for the National District senate position.
He says that Vargas himself has acknowledged the PRD's lack of success. Speaking at a recent Corripio Communications Group luncheon meeting, he said that the party was leading in 12 provinces, the PLD in 13 and the PRSC in 3, enough to grant the Senate to the PLD for the next six years.
Furthermore, he says that the Greenberg Quinland Rosner Research, published on 29 March, indicates that the PRD leads in the Chamber of Deputies with 47% versus 45% of the PLD and 5% of the PRSC, which again deals the government and its PRSC alliance, the lead in Congress. The same survey grants 49% to the PLD and 4% to the PRSC for 53% of this alliance.
Campaigning in Santo Domingo with President Leonel Fernandez on the weekend, Reinaldo Pared Perez, (PLD-National District) expressed his optimism that he would be re-elected on the grounds that surveys showed he had a 55-60% following in the city, along with city mayor Roberto Salcedo, who is seeking his third term, as reported in Hoy.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
PRD party members presented a record number of disputed candidacies to the Central Electoral Board (JCE), after party leaders imposed candidates over those elected in primaries.
Diaz points out that party strongman and president Miguel Vargas Maldonado's direction of the party seems to have alienated former President Hipolito Mejia and politician Luis Abinader. Leading party figures Hector Guzman, Guido Gomez Mazara, Tirso Mejia Ricart and Hugo Tolentino have also had serious differences with the Miguel Vargas team.
Diaz speculates that Vargas and his strategists had attempted to take control of the party to impose candidates for May 2010, creating a "new PRD." "But the cost in terms of friction within the party and external discredit is high," he says. He writes that the Vargas team has neither been able to orchestrate an effective and efficient opposition to the government.
He says that the survey by the Cibao Economic Center, which has been accurate in predicting electoral results in the past, indicates that Milagros Ortiz Bosch leads for the National District senate position.
He says that Vargas himself has acknowledged the PRD's lack of success. Speaking at a recent Corripio Communications Group luncheon meeting, he said that the party was leading in 12 provinces, the PLD in 13 and the PRSC in 3, enough to grant the Senate to the PLD for the next six years.
Furthermore, he says that the Greenberg Quinland Rosner Research, published on 29 March, indicates that the PRD leads in the Chamber of Deputies with 47% versus 45% of the PLD and 5% of the PRSC, which again deals the government and its PRSC alliance, the lead in Congress. The same survey grants 49% to the PLD and 4% to the PRSC for 53% of this alliance.
Campaigning in Santo Domingo with President Leonel Fernandez on the weekend, Reinaldo Pared Perez, (PLD-National District) expressed his optimism that he would be re-elected on the grounds that surveys showed he had a 55-60% following in the city, along with city mayor Roberto Salcedo, who is seeking his third term, as reported in Hoy.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)