Defeat-weary former president won’t run in 2016 elections

Santo Domingo.- “Taking part as a presidential candidate in the 2016 election isn’t on my agenda and I’m thinking of retiring,” was Thursday’s bombshell from former president Hipolito Mejia after visiting a cemetery to commemorate his late mentor Jose Francisco Peña Gomez’s birth.
"I’m very hurt politically as well as emotionally, but although I won’t participate as a presidential candidate, I will continue in political activities," Mejía told reporters.
He stated his regret for the seemingly endless crisis in Dominican Republic’s opposition PRD party and slammed his close collaborator and senior leader Guido Gomez Mazara for opting to seek the PRD presidency. "That’s his problem if he wants to participate in the rotten side of the PRD."
Mejia’s announcement comes after nearly two years of consecutive defeats in his struggle to oust Miguel Vargas from the PRD presidency.