Dominican politics too expensive: Big business

Santo Domingo.- NationalBusiness Council (Conep) president Rafael Blanco on Monday called the economiccost of the country´s political campaign immeasurable, both internally and for thepolitical organizations when they present candidates to voters.

He said that and theneed for transparency in the manner in which the parties elect authorities reiteratesthe need to pass the Electoral and Political Parties Law, as submitted by the CentralElectoral Board (JCE).

Blanco and severalConep executives met with JCE president Roberto Rosario, to learn about theprocess to stage next year´s general elections, including the tender won by aSpanish company for automated vote-count. "I expressed the businesssector´s great concern that election campaigns are proving costly in DominicanRepublic. In fact campaign costs are immeasurable."

He said it´s also importantto amend the Elections Law to limit the period and expense in electoral periods."If we do that it wouldn’t be very difficult to combat cronyism in theDominican Republic."