Luis Abinader initiates a new opposition leadership against the PLD
Mejia recognizes his triumph, and assures all that he will work as a soldier
Diario Libre
SANTO DOMINGO. With the recently elected presidential candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Luis Abinader, begins a new leadership of political opposition.
The concession of the Abinader victory, made near noon yesterday by former President Hipolito Mejia, leaves in the hands of the young politician the coordination of an opposition front, which in principle will form around the Convergence political coalition.
One of the promises by Abinader was that of unifying all the opposition, so that he will have, from now on, the difficult task of bringing together his forces with different leaderships, such as that of Guillermo Moreno, Hatuey De Camps and others who lead emerging political parties.
But his principle challenge will be to reach an understanding with the presidential candidate of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Miguel Vargas, who leads another opposition group denominated the Block of Hope, since Abinader has to overcome the radical positions of some PRM leaders who still have the fresh wounds of the recent political split.
Hipolito says the PRM will win
Mejia said yesterday that he will support the Abinader candidacy because society has a need to get rid of the government party.
"Luis called me to tell that he wanted to go over here, and I told him no, "you are now the chief here, you are the candidate." I am a simple member of the PRM, through which I have a commitment with the Dominican democracy," he noted.
He said that in the last convention "there were some things that were not completely right," and that later on, he will prepare a detailed report about what happened, but what is important now is that he has committed himself to assume the democratic role and not of the leader, but rather as a party organizer.
"I am a staunch democrat, I have a commitment with Dominican democracy, for here I am to continue my modest contributions to help the PRM and the opposition win the elections of May 2016," he said.
Abinader expressed his appreciation for the gesture by the former President, of whom he said he has no doubts that he will act as he said, because he has demonstrated that he is an honest man throughout his whole life, and a staunch democrat with the welfare of the Dominican society and its democracy in the forefront.
Abinader and Mejia called the behavior of the PRM rank and file exemplary, frustrating in that way "the predictions by people who were rubbing their hands" hoping that some incident might occur.
They stressed the discipline of the PRM membership during the internal process of last Sunday, minimizing the incidents.
Mejia was received by Abinader at the entrance to his political offices, where he went accompanied by his son Felipe Mejia Gomez, his campaign manager Cesar Cedeño, Faruk Miguel, Carlos Diaz Morfa, his security chief, his brother-in-law Sergio Grullon and his nephew Carlos Grullon.
Abinader was accompanied by his wife, Raquel Arbaje, his daughter Esther Abinader Arbaje, together with Roberto Fulcar, his campaign chief, Eligio Jaquez, Orlando Jorge Mera, José Rodriguez Soldevila , Luis Valdez and dozens of members of his political team.
Training and family
Abinader is an economist, 47, with postgraduate studies in Project Management at the Arthur D Little Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He also did studies in Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering at Harvard and Advanced Management at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
He is president of the Abicor Group and founder of Cementos Santo Domingo. He is married to Raquel Arbaje, and he is the father of Esther Patricia, Graciela Lucia and Adriana Margarita.
His rejection rate marks a tendency towards replacement
The second bulletin from the convention of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) issued in the early morning hours of Monday gave Luis Abinader 71.23% of the votes cast against 27.32% for Hipolito Mejia.
The Organizing Commission of the PRM convention reported that Abinader obtained 85,743 votes against 32,889 for Mejia.
They also reported that Geanilda Vasquez obtained 1278 votes 40.96%, while Amaury Justo Duarte received 483 votes for 0.40%.
For political scientist Daniel Pou, the results of the PRM convention indicate that there is little attractiveness for the candidacies by former presidents of the Republic.
"The rejection rate today necessarily implies that the punishment vote continues being an element that marks the electoral guidelines in the country, both inside the parties as well as in terms of the national context," indicated Pou.
He considered that Abinader has managed to bring together around himself important sectors of civil society and small parties, which former President Mejia had not been able to do.
"Mejia was a candidate that had stalled, because the ceiling of his candidacy was very low, so that he did not have much room to grow," said the political scientist.
The concession of the Abinader victory, made near noon yesterday by former President Hipolito Mejia, leaves in the hands of the young politician the coordination of an opposition front, which in principle will form around the Convergence political coalition.
One of the promises by Abinader was that of unifying all the opposition, so that he will have, from now on, the difficult task of bringing together his forces with different leaderships, such as that of Guillermo Moreno, Hatuey De Camps and others who lead emerging political parties.
But his principle challenge will be to reach an understanding with the presidential candidate of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Miguel Vargas, who leads another opposition group denominated the Block of Hope, since Abinader has to overcome the radical positions of some PRM leaders who still have the fresh wounds of the recent political split.
Hipolito says the PRM will win
Mejia said yesterday that he will support the Abinader candidacy because society has a need to get rid of the government party.
"Luis called me to tell that he wanted to go over here, and I told him no, "you are now the chief here, you are the candidate." I am a simple member of the PRM, through which I have a commitment with the Dominican democracy," he noted.
He said that in the last convention "there were some things that were not completely right," and that later on, he will prepare a detailed report about what happened, but what is important now is that he has committed himself to assume the democratic role and not of the leader, but rather as a party organizer.
"I am a staunch democrat, I have a commitment with Dominican democracy, for here I am to continue my modest contributions to help the PRM and the opposition win the elections of May 2016," he said.
Abinader expressed his appreciation for the gesture by the former President, of whom he said he has no doubts that he will act as he said, because he has demonstrated that he is an honest man throughout his whole life, and a staunch democrat with the welfare of the Dominican society and its democracy in the forefront.
Abinader and Mejia called the behavior of the PRM rank and file exemplary, frustrating in that way "the predictions by people who were rubbing their hands" hoping that some incident might occur.
They stressed the discipline of the PRM membership during the internal process of last Sunday, minimizing the incidents.
Mejia was received by Abinader at the entrance to his political offices, where he went accompanied by his son Felipe Mejia Gomez, his campaign manager Cesar Cedeño, Faruk Miguel, Carlos Diaz Morfa, his security chief, his brother-in-law Sergio Grullon and his nephew Carlos Grullon.
Abinader was accompanied by his wife, Raquel Arbaje, his daughter Esther Abinader Arbaje, together with Roberto Fulcar, his campaign chief, Eligio Jaquez, Orlando Jorge Mera, José Rodriguez Soldevila , Luis Valdez and dozens of members of his political team.
Training and family
Abinader is an economist, 47, with postgraduate studies in Project Management at the Arthur D Little Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He also did studies in Corporate Finance and Financial Engineering at Harvard and Advanced Management at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
He is president of the Abicor Group and founder of Cementos Santo Domingo. He is married to Raquel Arbaje, and he is the father of Esther Patricia, Graciela Lucia and Adriana Margarita.
His rejection rate marks a tendency towards replacement
The second bulletin from the convention of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) issued in the early morning hours of Monday gave Luis Abinader 71.23% of the votes cast against 27.32% for Hipolito Mejia.
The Organizing Commission of the PRM convention reported that Abinader obtained 85,743 votes against 32,889 for Mejia.
They also reported that Geanilda Vasquez obtained 1278 votes 40.96%, while Amaury Justo Duarte received 483 votes for 0.40%.
For political scientist Daniel Pou, the results of the PRM convention indicate that there is little attractiveness for the candidacies by former presidents of the Republic.
"The rejection rate today necessarily implies that the punishment vote continues being an element that marks the electoral guidelines in the country, both inside the parties as well as in terms of the national context," indicated Pou.
He considered that Abinader has managed to bring together around himself important sectors of civil society and small parties, which former President Mejia had not been able to do.
"Mejia was a candidate that had stalled, because the ceiling of his candidacy was very low, so that he did not have much room to grow," said the political scientist.
Diario Libre
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