Polls show former President Leonel Fernandez has far more voter support than Abel Martinez, who is a former president of the Chamber of Deputies and two-term mayor of Santiago (2016-2020 and 2020-2024) and now the presidential candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD).
Those who had hopes that Danilo Medina and Leonel Fernandez would put behind them their differences and work together for the 2024 general elections got a cold bucket of water last week. Former two-term President Danilo Medina announced that Abel Martinez, running for the PLD in the presidential election, will be the presidential candidate into the 2024 elections for the Rescate RD coalition that has brought the two parties together in select municipal and congressional positions.
Rescate RD unites the former ruling party, Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) and the Fuerza del Pueblo, the dissident party three-time President Leonel Fernandez created in 2020 when he argued Medina rigged the computer systems so that his preferred presidential candidate, Gonzalo Castillo could win the PLD nomination. Now Fernandez is back running for President. The 2015 Constitution does not allow Danilo Medina to run for President again.
Speaking on Thursday, 1 February 2024, in an event where he appeared with presidential candidate Abel Martinez, former President Medina backed his candidate to be the presidential candidate for the coalition.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
5 February 2024