Opposition party chasm swallows lawmaker, others to follow

SANTO DOMINGO. – The feisty opposition deputy Cristian Paredes resigned from Dominican Republic’s major opposition party, PRD, affirming he doesn’t feel represented by neither ex president and organization leader Hipólito Mejía nor by its president Miguel Vargas, both at the center of a bitter dispute for its control.

Upon making the announcement in Congress, the lawmaker said there’s no point in belonging to a party with a “self-destructive mind.”

"I will not go through life justifying the unjustifiable. The PRD has no justification possible any longer because you wake up to a new scandal every day. I don’t feel a desire to continue taking part in a game in which you’re seeking your own destruction," said the 5-term deputy for northeastern Sanchez Ramirez province, quoted by diariolibre.com.

He also accused PRD sectors, which he didn’t identify, of confabulation with the Administration of former president Leonel Fernandez. "There’ve been two processes in which senior party leaders conspire against the PRD’s interests."

But Paredes’ resignation is apparently just the tip of a rushing iceberg, because his colleague, Jorge Frías, revealed that there are other deputies in that organization who’ll also resign in the coming days, “also disgusted with the PRD’s situation.”