The PRD has chosen Miguel Vargas Maldonado as its presidential candidate for the 2016 election. He was proclaimed during the extraordinary convention that took place on Sunday, 14 September 2014.
In the September 2014 Gallup-Hoy, Vargas received 4.3% when voters were asked who they would like to be the next President. Others were:
Danilo Medina (54.2%), Leonel Fernandez (10.3%), Luis Abinader (8.7%), ?Hipolito Mejia (5.2%), Margarita Cedeno (3.6%) and Guillermo Moreno (1.8%).
In the poll, preferences for the PRD fell to 15%, the lowest in the party’s history, as a result of dissident factions within the party failing to reach an agreement to present a unified front. Luis Abinader and former President Hipolito Mejia recently formed the PRM (Partido Revolucionario Moderno). This compares to 54% for the PLD and 3% for the PRSC. Before the party split into the PRD and PRM, the PRD obtained 20-21% in previous Gallup-Hoy polls.
As reported by Juan Bolivar Diaz, in four hypothetical scenarios, the also poll revealed that if Vargas ran against Leonel Fernandez (PLD) and Luis Abinader (PRM) he would receive only 10% of the vote, against Leonel Fernandez and Hipolito Mejia 9% of the vote, against Danilo Medina and Abinader 6%, and against Medina and Mejia 6%.