Caribbean & Central America - March 2006 (ISSN 1741-4458)

A scramble for alliances before legislative elections in May is underway. The efforts by the main opposition Partido Revolucionario Dominicano (PRD) to cling on to its dominance in the legislature at all costs looks like it might backfire as PRD members express disillusionment with the party's so-called "Pink alliance" with the second opposition party Partido Reformista Social Cristiano (PRSC).

Many PRD members have struggled to reconcile themselves to an alliance which they feel is unnecessary. The PRD has 29 of 32 seats in the senate and 73 of 150 seats in the chamber of deputies.

PRD members are questioning why, given this position of power, they should have to back PRSC candidates in a large number of seats in both chambers of congress when PRD candidates could probably win the seats on their own.

The PRD party leadership, however, is not so sanguine. It fears that voters will desert the PRD in droves as they did in the presidential elections in 2003 that saw Leonel Fernández of the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) come to power.

Fernández used his state-of-the-nation address on 27 February to compare the impressive economic results registered by his government in 2005 with the disastrous economic management of the previous PRD administration.

The day after Fernández's address nine armed members of the PRD burst into the town hall in Haina, southwest of the capital, to protest against the decision by the PRD to allow a PRSC candidate to run for a seat in the municipal council rather than PRD candidate Reynaldo Aybar. Police duly arrived and endeavoured to dislodge the protesters with tear gas; they received a volley of fire in response. It took two hours to persuade the armed men to leave. Strangely there were no reports of casualties or arrests.

PRSC plays the game

PRD members are not the only ones looking doubtfully at the "Pink alliance". Alexandra Izquierdo, the first vice president of the PRSC, announced on 2 March that she would be running as deputy mayor in Santo Domingo to Roberto Salcedo, the PLD candidate. She justified her decision by accusing the PRSC of making a mistake in striking an alliance with the PRD.