Evangelists make evening gathering in front of the Electoral Parliament

Claim for blank vote

SANTO DOMINGO. - A group of evangelists integrated into the movement « Moral Democratic Answer » , organized yesterday an evening gathering if front of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to claim the taking into account of the blank votes which will be deposited in the ballot boxes on next May 16.

The evangelists, who arrived chained up, handed a document containing their proposal to the Secretariat of the JCE. The evening gathering was directed by the reverend Domingo Paulino Moya.

The deposited document expresses that they informed the international organizations like the Organization of the American States (OAS), the State Department of the United States and the Carter Center, of the refusal of the JCE to give an adequate response to their request.

The document indicates that to this end, they will meet with the ambassador of the OAS, Paúl Durán, to whom they will communicate the need for a great part of the country that one respects the right of expression.

Paulino Moya specified that in addition to the request to add an additional box for the vote of protest, they asked the JCE to work out a special form for the presidents of the electoral colleges, to report the statistics.

He stressed that the proposal of blank vote generated a vast support in the country.

El Listín Diario, by Wanda Méndez, 02.04.08

President Leonel will travel this Tuesday

Political tour

Santo Domingo.- President of Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez said next Wednesday April two he will initiates a political tour by the main cities of the United States.

With the President will be campaign general coordinator Francisco Javier García; Felix Baptist campaign operative director; Jose Ramon Fadul, Luís Manuel Bonetti and Rafael Núñez, members of the National Committee of Campaign of the PLD.

He said tour includes massive encounter, premises inaugurations of the allied forces, with the objective to consolidate the vote of the Dominican, to win in the elections May 16. He noted that in the last elections in New York City it obtained a 70 percent of the votes emitted of the Dominican, and said in the elections of May he will surpass that percentage, because Dominican understands clearly the project of modernization that, from the government, carries out in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Today, 01.04.08

Solenodon at the Zoo

Endangered animal

The National Zoo in Santo Domingo has taken over the care of a Solenodon paradoxus, also known as the Hispaniolan Solenodon or Marcano Solenodon, a species in immediate danger of extinction, which is believed to be endemic to the Dominican Republic.

The solenodon, or solenodonte, was captured by fishermen in El Seibo, as reported in El Dia.

The animal has also been sighted in the Jaragua National Park (southwestern DR) and National Park of the East (eastern DR), two protected areas.

The minute shrew-like mammal that dates back from prehistoric times was taken to the National Zoo on Wednesday.

Zoo director David Arias Canela explained that the animal is endangered because humans have depredated its natural habitats.

DR 1, 01.04.08

The Town council cleans the Capital

Political notices taken away

SANTO DOMINGO. - The Town council of Distrito Nacional continued this Thursday in several sectors of the Northern zone of the Capital its operation of taking away of hundreds of notices, streamers and other illegal publicities which promoted the aspirations of the presidential candidates of all the political parties which will participate to the elections of next May 16.

The taking away of the notices, panels and of any type of publicity placed illegally is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Resolution 46-99 on External Publicity and to those of laws 675 on Urbanization, 241 on Terrestrial Traffic and 176-07 on the town halls, which give the responsibility of the town councils of Distrito Nacional and of the police officers, the control of the territory and of public spaces of their respective jurisdictions.

However, to challenge these legal provisions, some political parties stuck up notices with starch on walls, electric posts and on public and private properties.

Regulation 46-99 in its articles 4, 8 and 9 prohibits the use of the cables, posts of public utility as well as trees for the installation of publicity of any type and in the event of election times the rules are implemented by the provisions of the Electoral Law.

The authorizations will have to be obtained through the ADN Department of Urban Public works.

Diario Digital, 03.04.08

US $70M joins Dominican capital’s construction boom

Ferreteria Americana

SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez Thursday headed the groundbreaking for the construction of Ferreteria Americana’s corporative offices and the shopping center Galeria 360, at a cost of more than 70 million dollars.

The chief executive accompanied Americana president Fernando Garcia, among other executives of the company.

According to reports, the world-wide Ikea will be one of the mall’s stores, located on Kennedy avenue.

Dominican Today, 11.04.08

Massive march-motorcade in the Capital

The Dominican opposition party

SANTO DOMINGO.- The Dominican Republic’s largest opposition party yesterday shook the capital with a vast march-motorcade, in which its vice presidential candidate, Jose Joaquin Puello, had to be attended after being sprayed with pepper gas.

The path is closed to the re-election by the high cost of living, the unemployment, the crime and the most aberrant corruption in Dominican history, said presidential candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado.

In the end, at 7:15 p.m., on a stage in the Malecon, Vargas said the rally showed that the PRD triumph was sealed in the May 16 elections.

Vargas and Puello met at 4:15 p.m.in Villas Agricolas sector, with smiling faces and gestures of enthusiasm, heading the chants against the president Leonel Fernandez’s Administration.

Dominican Today, 07.04.08

Fernandez returns today after one week U.S. campaign tour

Obtains support of popular merengue band leader

Santo Domingo.- The President and PLD party presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez will return to the country today after a tour of several United States cities, where he headed a series of campaign activities prior to the May 16 elections.

The chief executive will arrive in the afternoon at San Isidro Airbase on a private flight, accompanied by the first lady Margarita Cedeño, several senior officials and PLD leaders. He visited Miami, Boston, several cities in New Jersey, Long Island and New York, among others, where he met with business leaders, university students, merchants, inaugurated several PLD offices and swore in several leaders of the opposition PRSC party.

In all the activities, including a conference in the University Miami Dade, Fernandez said he’ll win in the first ballot.

Johnny Ventura

Fernandez also obtained the support of the popular merengue band leader Jhonny (sic) Ventura, who was also a former deputy of the opposition PRD party.

Dominican Today, 08.04.08

UN chief congratulates Dominican President

For easing regional tensions

SANTO DOMINGO.- United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon sent president Leonel Fernandez a letter to congratulate him for his mediation in the recent Rio Group Summit, in which the differences between Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia were discussed, after the latter’s military entered the former’s territory to attack a guerrilla camp.

Your perseverance was key to ease the escalating tensions between Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua said Ki-Moon’s message to Fernandez.

The United Nations secretary general’s message, dated March 18, stresses the importance of the accord reached in the Rio Group Summit as a demonstration of the Latin American nations’ commitment to face their problems via dialogue and the regional and sub regional mechanisms.

Dominican Today, 09.04.08

Dominican ruling party closes poll-leading campaign

Massive rally

SANTO DOMINGO.- With a massive rally that president Leonel Fernandez defined as the largest manifestation in the country’s political history, the ruling PLD Party yesterday closed its electoral campaign in the Francisco del Rosario Sanchez bridge’s western approach.

Six major polls published in the last 6 days give Fernandez a first-ballot win with an average of 55 percent.

Fernandez and five other speakers centered frontal attacks against the former government headed by the opposition PRD party and its candidate Miguel Vargas.

Dominican Today, 13.05.08

Dominican Chinatown

Inauguration tonight

The Subway of Santo Domingo will serve the Book Fair

It will transport 1.200 passengers who were pre selected

The Subway of Santo Domingo will be again put in function as from tomorrow Saturday, within the framework of what the Office For the Reorganization of Transport (OPRET) called the Second Traffic organization, with the two trains which arrived to the country, having both three wagons and a capacity of 650 passengers.

Diandino Peña, director of the OPRET, explained that they hope to transport some 1.200 passengers this Saturday, people who were pre selected among the public employees, the members of neighbor’s assemblies and the residents of the provinces who will come to the capital for the Fair.

For this second test, they chose as central scene the International Book Fair which will take place as from next Wednesday in the Place of the Culture, towards which the two trains will converge, of which one will transport the passengers from the stations Hermanas Mirabal (North Mirador Park) and of Los Taínos (Avenue Nicolás de Ovando).
The other will take travelers from the stations Amín Abel (UASD) and Centro de Los Héroes.

To have a greater control than the preceding time, the authorities planned that every passenger is provided with a free ticket thanks to which they will prevent that the capacity of the trains is exceeded.

Peña has advanced that the duration of the probation period will be determined by the technicians who supervise the operation of the Subway and if it is possible, it will be extended until May 16, day of the elections.

El Caribe, by Camilo Javeir, 18.04.08

The Government delivers grants to 10.000 students of the UASD

Solidarity cards for students having small budgets

The government delivered yesterday 10 thousand Solidarity cards for the Stimulation of Superior Education (IES) cards to the students of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) having small budgets.

Thanks to this emulation which involves an investment of more than 5 million pesos, the students of the Capital and interior of the country, will receive monthly revenue of 500 pesos for the purchase of books, school material and payment of the university registration.

During the opening ceremony of the program, the secretary of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Seescyt), Ligia Amada Melo, announced that it acts of the first handing-over until to reach the number of 50.000 students.

She said that the initiative seeks to promote the equality, to avoid the absenteeism and to stimulate academic excellence among the young neediest people of the country.

The director of the Administration of the Social Subsidies (ADESS), Vaneldel Spinal, explained that the young people were selected after having been registered on the Web page of Seescyt.

The president of the Association Nacional de Ahorros y Préstamos, Freddy Reyes, state superintendent of education of the official university, also chaired the ceremony.

Hoy Digital, by Carmen Matos, 22.04.08

Dominican capital inaugurates its International Book Fair 2008

2000 activities

SANTO DOMINGO.- The 11th Santo Domingo International Book Fair 2008 will be inaugurated at 7 p.m. today with a show in the National Theater, said its director Alejandro Arvelo on Sunday.

President Leonel Fernandez will cut the ribbon in the company of Leidy Isabel Hernandez, from Monte Plata, who wonthe Student of Merit Prize, and Héctor Santillán, of La Romana, winner of the National Spelling Bee.

Alrvelo said the Caribbean’s common bonds would be highlighted with the presence of Derek Walcott, of St. Lucia, Nobel prize winner for Literature in 1992, who becomes the first laureate of the prestigious award to take part in the Fair.

Dominican Today, 21.04.08

Fernandez inaugurates RD $4.6B aqueduct supplies Dominican capital

Reelection cheers accompany ribbon cutting