‘Corruption’ could brake ex Dominican president’s return to power

Santo Domingo.- The bad news standing in the way of former president Leonel Fernandez’s bid to return to office keeps mounting, this time with four questions on corruption in a Penn, Schoen & Berland survey released Wednesday by the SIN news network.

Fernandez and his close collaborator Felix Bautista are considered the most corrupt during the Administration of the former, as 77% approve the Justice Ministry’s effort to indict the lawmaker, while 81% agree that government officials should be charged in the alleged graft in the purchase of the Brazilian Super Tucano warplanes.

Most corrupt government

The poll found that 58% see the administrations of Fernandez as the most corrupt, 34% said it was Hipolito Mejia’s and only 3% for current president Danilo Medina.

The most corrupt people

To the open question as to who’re the most corrupt people in Fernández’s administrations, 52% named Bautista, 42% Fernandez and 13% said former Public Works minister Victor Diaz Rúa.

Arrest Bautista

When asked about Justice minister Francisco Dominguez’s request for a warrant to arrest Bautista, 77% agree.

Tucano planes

When asked if the Dominican government should prosecute those who took bribes in the deal for the Tucano aircraft, 81% agree, while only 7% disagree and 11% said they didn’t know or didn’t respond.

Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigates the alleged bribes, Dominican authorities have either yet to launch a probe or have yet to make it public, despite that a senior military officer has been mentioned in the scandal.