Dominican Election Watch

Voters in the Dominican Republic are preparing for a final round of balloting next month in their presidential election, but neither they nor international observers seem assured that it will be a clean, fair vote.

After all, the June 30 balloting could signal the long-overdue arrival of democracy in a nation whose history has been soiled by dictatorships, political fraud and deceit. Little wonder that suspicions lurk in the minds of those watching the process, and these have deepened since President Joaquin Balaguer chose to reinstate Enrique Perez de Perez as national chief of police after the first round of voting last Thursday. Some election monitors and civil rights groups say Gen. Perez has long done the political dirty work of Balaguer, and they fear what electoral shenanigans the 89-year-old president, now feeble, deaf and almost blind, may be plotting.

Dominicans say the old man should never be underestimated. Seven times president, he also spent more than two decades as a trusted advisor to the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The president is a wily survivor, and there would have been no election at all had not U.S. diplomats helped broker his agreement to step down halfway through his latest presidential term.

Given this history, the Caribbean nation might best be served if its officials doubled the number of trained domestic poll watchers from the current 1,140. That decision lies with the central elections board. Another proper suggestion would place observers in the computer center where the voting will be tabulated. It was there that rigging of the May 1994 election was alleged to have taken place.

Clean or crooked, the second round of voting is expected to be tight. None of the three main candidates won the required 50% of the vote in the first round. Jose Francisco Pena Gomez had 46% and Leonel Fernandez 39%. Balaguer’s candidate, Jacinto Peynada, was eliminated.

With Peynada gone, most observers believe Balaguer will support Fernandez. That is his prerogative but he should know that to tamper with the democratic process by either coup or fraud is no longer a tolerable option in this hemisphere. Anyone who would try it would be no better than an outlaw.