SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) -- Dominican political
                  parties exchanged fraud accusations in a struggle for control of a key
                  municipal organisation on Thursday as political turmoil in the Caribbean
                  nation spilled over into violent street clashes.

                  The executive branch of the Dominican government on Wednesday night
                  announced that it had assumed control of the Dominican Municipal League,
                  an association of mayors that controls the portion of the national budget
                  designated for local governments. That amount totals more than $100
                  million.

                  That action prompted the leftist opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party
                  (PRD), which controls the national legislature and a clear majority of
                  municipalities, to declare a "day of struggle" to regain the "rights of the
                  public."

                  Santo Domingo was relatively quiet on Thursday. But unknown vandals
                  smashed windows and caused other serious damage to 36 public buses
                  early in the day, said Ignacio Ditreen, director of the state public
                  transportation service.

                  The Dominican Republic's three leading political parties have been battling all
                  week over how to elect a new secretary-general for the Dominican
                  Municipal League.

                  On Tuesday, President Leonel Fernandez's centrist Dominican Liberation
                  Party (PLD) and the conservative Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC),
                  which has held the presidency for most of the past three decades, met in San
                  Pedro de Macoris and swore in Amable Aristy Castro of the PRSC as
                  secretary-general of the league.

                  At the same time, as police and soldiers barricaded the league's
                  headquarters in Santo Domingo, members of the PRD met at a hotel in the
                  capital and declared the PRD candidate, Julio Marinez, reelected as
                  secretary-general.

                  The PRD meeting came only hours after police and soldiers fired on party
                  activists as they tried to enter the headquarters building on Monday night.
                  Two PRD senators and three journalists received pellet wounds in that clash.

                  The violence prompted the Americas division of Human Rights Watch to
                  issue a statement on Wednesday condemning the shootings and calling on
                  Fernandez to order an immediate investigation.

                  "We are shocked by this seemingly indiscriminate use of force," said Jose
                  Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas
                  division.

                  The Dominican Senate, which is dominated by the PRD, also on
                  Wednesday passed a resolution to censure Fernandez and Anibal Sanz
                  Jiminian, chief of the National Police, for the clash at the league
                  headquarters.

                  There was no immediate response from the president to either action.

                  Both sides in the dispute accuse the other side of fraudulently electing the
                  delegates to the Dominican Municipal League who elect the
                  secretary-general. PRD officials said on Thursday they would go to court in
                  an effort to overturn Aristy Castro's installation as secretary-general.

                  The clashes this week have scared off many of the tourists that typically visit
                  the Dominican Republic, a nation of 8 million that shares the Caribbean
                  island Hispaniola with Haiti.

                  Citing official sources, the newspaper Hoy reported on Thursday that some
                  40,000 tourists, most from Europe, cancelled hotel reservations this week.

                  Separately, Venezuela's president-elect, Hugo Chavez, traveled to the
                  Dominican Republic from Washington on Thursday morning for a breakfast
                  meeting with Fernandez, a National Palace spokesman said.

                   Copyright 1999 Reuters.