since the prd had a strict anti-re-election stance, it was assumed that jacobo majluta was next in line for his party's nomination. majluta was vice president under antonio guzmán fernández and had served as president for 43 days after guzmán committed suicide. after having been defeated by jorge blanco for the nomination in 1982, he was given the candidacy for santo domingo senator and president of the senate (a similar deal had been done by blanco and guzmán in 1978) which he won. from this position he engaged a fierce battle with the faction of the party led by blanco and so the latter tried putting secretary of state hatuey decamps against majluta for the nomination but someone so close to the unpopular government could not stop majluta who had become the most vocal critic of the administration. blanco supporters then turned to party leader and mayor of santo domingo, the popular josé francisco peña gómez. at first he did not accept it (neither declined it) but after surviving a heart attack he believed it was his destiny to become president and so he decided to run against his once closest party colleague. the race was extremely close and divisive, even causing a shoot out at the concorde hotel but when results came in, majluta was declared the winner.