Opposition party rift plays to the hands of the ruling PLD

Santo Domingo.- The widening rift within Dominican Republic’s opposition party (PRD) is playing right into the hands of the ruling PLD, when the organization’s president Miguel Vargas and his rival the ex candidate Hipolito Mejia raised their dispute to the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), most of whose members were chosen by the PLD.

Vargas’ move comes just hours after “president in functions” and Mejia collaborator Andrés Bautista vowed to defend that faction in any State entity

Both factions have suspended and even expelled members of the rival group, with challenges to the measures likely to end up in the Supreme Court, and eventually to the Constitutional Court, both tribunals widely influenced by the PLD.

The PRD internal crisis is expected to be drawn out, as both factions appear to count with a similar number of national leaders.