Dominican opposition leaders take poll fraud claim to the OAS

Santo Domingo.- Five opposition presidential candidates on Tuesdaywalked to the Foreign Ministry, where the Organization of American States (OAS)holds its 46th annual General Assembly, "to state for the recordt0 all of Latin America and the Caribbean and the rest of the world that DominicanRepublic’s elections on May 15 irregularities occurred which set up asystematic pattern of fraudulent manipulations."

They called the elections “a serious affront to democracyand a serious setback to the efforts of the countries of the Americas tostrengthen electoral institutions that serve as a framework for free,transparent and fair expression of the sovereign voice of the people at thepolls.”

"We couldn’t pass up the opportunity for meeting inour country the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Americas, to address theissue of institutional strengthening and sustainable development, proposed bythe Dominican government, our people want them to note the decline ofdemocratic institutions represented by the last elections in the DominicanRepublic," they said.

The presidential candidate Luis Abinader, PRM, GuillermoMoreno, Al-País, Elias Wessin Chavez, the PQDC, Minou Tavarez Mirabal, APD andSoraya Aquino, PUN and leaders of their respective parties took part in theprotest along with hundreds of supporters who went to the Foreign Ministry.

The candidates delivered a series of documents listing the allegedirregularities and fraudulent actions attributed to Dominican Republic’s rulingPLD party and the Central Electoral Board to be given to each of the foreignministers of the Western Hemisphere.