47-year old Luis Abinader, who was the vice presidential candidate for the PRD in the 2012 presidential election, has been chosen as the presidential candidate for the Partido Humanista Dominicano. The party, founded by Elexido Paula, backed former President Hipolito Mejia of the PRD in the 2012 election. Abinader is a businessman who seeks to provide an alternative to long-established politicians. In his presentation, Paula said that Abinader has a vocation for reaching a consensus and has a low rejection rate.
The PRD, PRM and now the PHD have agreed to present a political candidate by consensus by 29 March 2015. Other possible candidates include Hipolito Mejia for the newly formed PRM and PRD president Miguel Vargas Maldonado.
When accepting the nomination, Abinader said: “I guarantee to unify the opposition and to work together to defeat corruption.”
Luis Abinader is the son of businessman and PRD politician Jose Rafael Abinader. He studied economy at the INTEC university in Santo Domingo and is a graduate in project management from the Arthur D. Little School of Management in Massachusetts. He also studied corporate finances and financial engineering at the University of Harvard and management at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.