Significance: Vargas, who narrowly lost to Mejía in the primary, had contested the result for over a month, prompting fears of a party split. The Socialist International sent its Latin American and the Caribbean committee chair, Martín Torrijos, the former president of Panama (2004-2009), to mediate, to no avail. Now, it appears that the party will finally coalesce around Mejía in his attempt to regain the country's presidency in 2012, after two consecutive loses to the centre-left Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD).
Key points:
Vargas announced that he had decided to put to one side “his legitimate aspiration" to become the PRD's presidential candidate for the sake of party unity. However, he was still critical of the party's national commission and its organisation of the primaries. Nonetheless, he urged his supporters not to bear a grudge and to collaborate with Mejía's campaign. “I will not be an obstacle for the party to re-unite and successfully participate in next May's election", he concluded.
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