The forces that seek to re-elect President Hipolito Mejia announced the start of the campaign to seek his nomination as the PRD?s candidate in the 2003 election. At a significant event held in La Romana, the group known as the ?pepehachistas? (PPHers) launched their new slogan, ?Mejia does not govern alone?.
Meanwhile, people such as Tourism Minister Rafael Subervi Bonilla, Interior & Police Minister Pedro Franco Badia, Vice President and Education Minister Milagros Ortiz Bosch and Health Minister Jose Rodriguez Soldevila held their own campaign activities over the weekend, to garner support as they too seek the PRD candidacy for the May 2004 presidential election.
President Mejia said that the campaigning cabinet ministers should resign their posts so that there would be no danger of government resources being spent on their political canvassing. The PRD has said it will hold its primaries in September, although a specific date has not been set.
Meanwhile, other key government officers (Agriculture Minister Eligio Vasquez, Presidency Public Works Supervisor Hernani Salazar and Presidential legal advisor Guido Gomez Mazara) are the leading supporters of the PPH and are openly promoting re-election during the public work inaugurations attended by Mejia nationwide.
Other PRD candidacy hopefuls are Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, Jose Rafael Abinader, Ramon Alburquerque, Rafael Flores Estrella, and party president, Hatuey de Camps.