Santo Domingo.- A bit of everything marked the Chamber of Deputies’ opening session on Tuesday, as more than 90 of its members are new, many of whom wandered lost in the corridors where they’ll “represent” their constituents for the next six years.

Some didn’t even know the location of their Chamber offices or how to use the voting system, despite having taken part in two training sessions.

“My God, what do I do now, what button do I press?,” the new legislators asked their repeating neighbors about the voting, including ex Chamber president Hugo Tolentino Dipp, who amid the first day’s morass pushed the wrong button. “Forgive me, I am lost, this has changed so much!”

The technical aspects didn’t help either; constant sound glitches including the microphone of the new Chamber president Abel Martinez and the spokesmen of the party caucuses.  A computer failure also affected the tally of the votes on a big screen.

“This is crazy, it’s direct, I didn’t vote and my vote is counted,” said the deputy Kenya de Bisonó.

The comedian Luisín Jiménez and Juan Hubieres the notorious head of a major group of bus owners drew the most attention.

Jiménez ruthlessly attacked the media by blaming it for the deputies’ “bad image like bandits or charlatans,” while Hubieres, who didn’t vociferate against the rich and neoliberalism, was the target of the ruling PLD party lawmakers, who shouted “you leech,” “did you pay for the blue buses?,” “blackmailer, actor, learn to drive, you head a union and don’t even know how to drive,” as Martinez repeatedly struck the gavel to silence the yelling.

Also contributing to the din was the “Chinese deputy” and people trafficking convict Radhamés Ramos Garcia (PRD-La Vega). “I am a Communist, envoy of God, to be president the Republic,” inviting his colleagues to imitate his “communitarian example” of spending his salary, travel allowance and other perks in a clinic in his city.