Voting observation flap pits US funded entity, Electoral Board

Santo Domingo.- One of the founders of Participación Ciudadana (Citizen Participation) (PC), whose work is partly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Thursday said the Central Electoral Board (JCE) wages a smear campaign against them, referring to statements by JCE member Jose Angel Aquino.

PC founder and member Diaz Juan Bolivar Diaz said the PC’s interest has always been to work in electoral observation and rejected allegations that it seeks the exclusive handling of elections. “What Roberto Rosario (JCE president) has against Participation is old and results from Participation’s complaint of the contract which the JCE signed with the company SOMOS for the automation of that institution.”

On Wednesday Aquino accused PC of increasing hostility toward the JCE. In a statement Aquino said PC was mistaken when it defended an exclusive right to observe the electoral process. “To believe that Citizen Participation is the only entity authorized to observe elections would be to grant that organization an irritating privilege (which is) contrary to the principles of equality which the Republic’s Constitution consecrates.”