Congress will shortly vote upon whether to adopt the so-called `Ley de Lemas', which was used by Uruguay for some time and by Argentina in its last elections. Under this law, any single party can field several candidates. This would enable the other six PRD pre-candidates, who have refused to accept Mejía's re-election bid, to run for election as well. The flaw with the scheme is that the most voted among a party's candidates later amasses the votes cast for all the others belonging to that same party; votes that would not be cast for that candidate on his or her own. For this reason, it is not surprising that Leonel Fernández, a former president and leader of the main opposition Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) who is streets ahead in the polls, has objected to the law. It would probably be enough to prevent him winning in the first round and force him into the lottery of a run-off. Fernández said that the PLD will seek consensus among the other parties in congress to prevent the law from being passed as 'democracy is under threat'. The upshot, he predicted, would be 'chaos, disorder and anarchy'. While the PRD dominates the senate, with 29 of the 32 seats, it has no such stranglehold on the chamber of deputies. It has 73 seats in the 150-seat chamber. This is exceeded by the combined strength of the PLD (41 seats) and the Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (36 seats), which also opposes the law. Prominent leaders in civil society have expressed their opposition to the law too. The Fundación Institucionalidad y Justicia (Finjus) and Participación Ciudadana (PC) said that the law would violate the constitution, which stipulates that the president and vice-president must be elected by direct vote. Mejía has further cards up his sleeve if congress thwarts his plans. On 25 January, the PRD will proclaim the winner of the party convention held on 18 January as their official candidate. Mejía's three main rivals - Vice-President Milagros Ortiz Bosch, tourism minister Rafael Suberví Bonilla and Enmanuel Esquea - were not on the ballot for the convention and have gone to court to try and prove that it is illegitimate. Mejía's rivals pulled out of the original convention (scheduled for 21 December but postponed) because they alleged state funds had been used to buy votes and that hundreds of thousands of names were either added or subtracted from the voting lists. Peso plummets
All the political uncertainty has compounded the country's economic problems. By 15 January the dollar was trading openly at RD$48 to US$1. This despite the government's military-led drive to bring the dollar rate down to RD$30 (on the grounds that the IMF wanted it below RD$40 before it would approve the standby agreement being negotiated). The military was unleashed by Mejía on 5 December to close exchange houses accused of operating illegally. A month later, central bank governor José Lois Malkun admitted defeat and a complete change of tack: `Let the market decide the rate. That is the policy of the central bank, to not intervene in the market under any circumstance,' he said. Leading economist Pedro Silverio launched a scathing attack on Mejía's muddled military initiative. He said that, on the street, though established exchange operators were posting a rate of RD$35, they had no dollars with which to conduct transactions, leading to a flourishing black market in which the dollar was changing hands at well over RD$40. Silverio said that the surge of the informal exchange market in December came as a 'surprise' only to the government, as it was obvious to all the other players that military intimidation would only stimulate its creation and operation in such a sensitive marketplace. This time last year, the peso was trading at RD$17.5 to US$1. Meanwhile, the national transport union (CNTU) has said that it will take part in a general strike on 28 and 29 January. The secretary-general of the CNTU, Ramón Pérez Figuereo, said that the government had pushed it into taking the action. He said that as petrol prices have increased 200% in the last three years, travel fares would also have to go up. Budget boost
The latest currency woes came despite final approval by the chamber of deputies of the budget for 2004. With the budget safely through both chambers of congress, the only other action that needs to be met for the IMF agreement to be put back on track is congressional approval of a financial systemic risk law. This is an addendum to the current monetary law that allows for the establishment of a fund designed to provide extraordinary financial assistance to troubled banks to prevent their collapse and thus reduce systemic risk. This law is also making progress through the congressional machinery.
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