Leaders of the ruling PRD party and candidates for the presidency have come out strongly against Hip?lito Mej?a and his re-election statements. Both Hatuey Decamps, the party?s president, and Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero have accused Mej?a of tarnishing the history of the party. Decamps, in a televised speech, used party documents, resolutions, statutes and former political platforms to reject President Mej?a?s bid for re-election. At one point, against a backdrop of a giant portrait of former PRD leader Jos? Francisco Pe?a G?mez, Decamps told his audience that ?this is not an opportunity, this is about principles?. Decamps wrapped up by reading an excerpt from Pe?a G?mez? book, ?The Construction of Democracy? in which the anti-re-election sentiment is highly emphasized and called ?unavoidable?. Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, the presidential legal counsel during the term of President Salvador Jorge Blanco (1982-1986), revealed a letter that he had sent to President Mej?a, in which he said that the decision to run again for the presidency would be damaging not only to the PRD but to the country. Esquea told the President, ?With this decision, not only are you breaking your word, but you are infuriating the party that brought you to power, the same party that for 64 years has upheld a policy against re-election as a party standard.? Pedro Franco Badia, yet another possible candidate, said that he was not going to forego his candidacy just because Hip?lito Mej?a was going to try for a second term. Other leaders, such as Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Tourism Minister Rafael Suberv? Bonilla, have reserved television slots for this evening.