Dominican Republic opposition party convention: Scuffles, gunfire

Santo Domingo.- As expected, Dominican Republic’s opposition party (PRD) on Sunday held its second national convention to choose its main leadership under a hail of insults, minor injuries and even gunfire at its main headquarters, when one of the contenders tried to enter to cast his vote.

The PRD said it concluded tallying most of the votes late into the night and the organizing commission announced that Miguel Vargas had been re-elected president during the balloting that according to the National Police with at least 15 people hurt, four serious incidents and claims of fraud by the candidate to the party president, Guido Gomez Mazara.

The organizing committee said with 538,478 of the ballots tallied in 341 polling stations, Vargas won with 169,002 votes, or 87.31%; Gomez Mazara followed with 14,089, or 7.27%, Francisco Peña 8,051 (4.15%) and Juan Santos 2,415 (1.27%).

A security guard at PRD headquarters fired several rounds during scuffles when one of Gomez Mazara’s supporters hurled a bottle at the building, with at least 15 people hurt.