Dominicans Vote; Signs of Fraud Emerge

Signs of fraud emerged in elections Monday to determine if President Joaquin Balaguer, a key player in torpedoing world sanctions on neighboring Haiti, will extend his long rule.

Leading challenger Jose Francisco Pena Gomez and other opponents accused electoral officials of excluding some voters from the polls--a charge confirmed in part by international election monitors.

Balaguer’s 1990 victory, in which he received fewer than 700,000 votes in a nation of 7.6 million, was marred by widespread allegations of electoral fraud.

The blind, 87-year-old leader, who has ruled for 20 of the last 28 years, dismissed the charges of fraud in Monday’s voting.

Polls put him in a dead heat with Pena Gomez, a 57-year-old lawyer and former mayor of Santo Domingo. The challenger hopes to become the first black president this century in a nation where 84% of the people are black or of mixed race.

The results were being closely scrutinized in Washington and next door in Haiti, where military coup leaders have been able to withstand international sanctions because Balaguer has allowed profitable cross-border smuggling.