Mudslinging, Gunslinging Campaign : 3 Ex-Presidents Compete in Dominican Vote Today

Three former presidents, whose records recall this Caribbean country’s stormy political past, are competing for a comeback in a hotly contested presidential election today.

On the right is Joaquin Balaguer, 78 and blind. He won three consecutive presidential elections after a civil war and U.S. military intervention in 1965.

On the left is Juan Bosch, 76, who calls himself a Marxist. He was elected president in 1962 but was overthrown seven months later in a military coup.

At the center is Jacobo Majluta, 51, president of the Senate and a member of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party. Majluta has never won a presidential election but he served as president for a month and a half in 1982 after the incumbent committed suicide.

Each of the three candidates insists that he is the top contender, and conflicting public opinion polls support all three.

Polls Have ‘Little Credibility’

“The polls have just been all over the lot, and they have little credibility,” a foreign political analyst said.

Most independent analysts say that either Balaguer or Majluta is likely to win. Bosch is considered a dark horse, and three other candidates, including Communist Narciso Isa Conda, are expected to win only a tiny fraction of the votes. Also at issue are congressional seats and city offices.

All three major presidential candidates have warned of possible electoral fraud. Two have predicted popular turmoil if they are defeated.

Bosch said last week that if his victory is blocked, “we will bring the people to the streets to confront the obstacle.” Balaguer said that fraud against him would be met by a spontaneous popular reaction. “If there is fraud, no one knows what will happen,” he said.

But Majluta said, “Those prophets of disaster who say that they are going to bring the people to the streets--people they don’t have--and that there is going to be bloodshed, they are talking just to talk.”

On Monday, the government appointed a blue-ribbon advisory commission to oversee the election and guard against fraud. The commission is headed by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Santo Domingo, Msgr. Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez.

The campaign has been a spirited one, marked by mudslinging and gunslinging. Half a dozen people have been killed in shootings that erupted when rival crowds clashed.

Such violence is not unusual in Dominican political campaigns. What is unusual this year is the carnival atmosphere of the campaign. Partisans have clustered along major city streets all week, waving pennants in their party colors and flashing hand signs. Red and an extended index finger stand for Balaguer’s party, white and two fingers in a “V” for Majluta’s and purple and a raised fist for Bosch’s.

In the last week, the major candidates have all held mass rallies in Santo Domingo, drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters.

Prime-time television has been crowded with campaign propaganda, political forums and candidates’ speeches. The propaganda against Balaguer has focused on his blindness and on allegations of human rights abuses during his presidency. Majluta has been been depicted as the candidate of a corrupt party, which currently holds power, and Bosch has been portrayed as an erratic radical.

TV Mudslinging

At one point, TV mudslinging became so offensive that the Catholic Church complained. Television stations and party officials agreed to tone it down.

All three main candidates have appealed for votes by deploring widespread poverty and malnutrition in this country of 6 million people. But “no serious program of government has been articulated by anyone,” a foreign analyst said.

Dominican democracy has been developing by fits and starts since May, 1961, when the dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated after three decades in power. Balaguer, a figurehead president at the end of Trujillo’s regime, stayed in office for a few months before going into exile.

Bosch, then leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, came back from exile and won the election of 1962 with 59% of the vote. He was overthrown a few months later. In 1965, when Bosch’s followers tried to reinstate him, civil war erupted and the United States sent in troops to restore order.

Some of the U.S. troops were still here when elections were held in 1966. Balaguer and his Reformist Party won with 56% of the vote. Bosch was second, with 37%.

Balaguer Won Twice

In 1970 and 1974, Bosch refused to run, and Balaguer won both times, with large majorities. Meanwhile, Bosch left the Revolutionary Party and formed the Dominican Liberation Party.

In 1978, Balaguer lost to the Revolutionary Party’s Antonio Guzman, who won 52% of the vote to Guzman’s 42%. Bosch received only 1% on that occasion.

After Guzman’s suicide in 1982, Majluta moved up from the vice presidency to serve as president until the next scheduled election. Salvador Jorge Blanco of the Revolutionary Party won with 47% of the vote; Balaguer had 37% and Bosch, 10%.

As president, Jorge Blanco imposed unpopular austerity measures to deal with a severe financial crisis. Apparently fearing rejection at the polls because of the economic squeeze, he decided not to run for reelection.

Majluta, one of Jorge Blanco’s harshest critics, won the Revolutionary Party’s nomination. Majluta is also running as the candidate of The Structure, a party he organized last year.

Balaguer’s Reformist Party, which has merged with the tiny Social Christian Party, is now called the Social Christian Reformist Party.