Dr. José Francisco Peña Gómez, who had self-proclaimed himself candidate for mayor of Santo Domingo for the Partido Revolucionario Dominicano, said he would accept not to run if the three original contenders to the post would agree on celebrating a new primary. This is unlikely. Peña Gómez was responding to Julio Maríñez, who in his comments accepting Peña Gómez’s decision to run in the company of Johnny Ventura, merengue band orchestra and former congressman, said that Peña Gómez had done away with democracy within the party (Maríñez hopes for democracy in the PRD in the future). Maríñez reportedly won that primary with a slim margin of 300 votes. Peña Gómez made his comments in a letter sent from New York to his party heads, Vicente Sánchez Baret, Hugo Tolentino Dipp and Hatuey Decamps. The party has until 16 March to register its candidate for the election. The different factions within the PRD dispute the candidacy, thus Peña Gómez’s decision to run himself in order to avoid a division of the party.
