DominicanToday.com - The Central Electoral Board (JCE) banned the political parties’ delegates from issuing statements to the press and to receive reporters in the Political Parties Salon, denounced the representatives of the minority PRSC, BISD and PQDC organizations, during the filing of a joint challenge to demand the right to a national deputy, each.

The measure comes in the wake of tensions as the opposition PRD party has cried fraud in last week’s elections and its president Miguel Vargas accused the JCE of not putting a stop to the alleged irregularities.

The JCE’s Press Department told the delegates that they can speak to reporters only in the outer corridors, but not within the Salon area, which will be used to present only official JCE press information. The parties’ delegates filed their complaint before the Electoral court’s presidency.

It became a custom for reporters to interview the parties’ representatives in that Salon during the electoral process, but today’s measure surprised the media, when plainclothes security personnel blocked the journalists’ access.