U.S. funded NGO changes director hours after top official’s rebuke

Santo Domingo. – The NGO Citizen Participation (PC) announced the designation of Francisco Alvarez as its new general coordinator, just hours after Interior and Police minister Jose Fadul disqualified the entity to send observers to the May 20 presidential election, affirming that its previous coordinator, Samir Chami Isa, “was at the service of opposition PRD party presidential candidate Hipolito Mejia.”

PC, which gets partial funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, also designated Jose Manuel Paliza, Jose Tejada, Candido Mercedes, Somnia Vargas, Rosalía Sosa, and Isa, members of its Coordinating Committee.

The election was held during the PC General Assembly, while the members Manuel Morales Lama, Paulo Herrera Maluf, Fabiola Medina, Nelly Heredia Agramonte and Pedro Acevedo were designated to the National Council.