Johnny Araya

Johnny Araya on Sept. 5 confirmed his bid as mayoral candidate for the Alliance for San José Party in municipal elections on Feb. 7, 2016.

Ex-presidential candidate and former San José Mayor Johnny Araya Monge on Wednesday evening said he will not seek to become the National Liberation Party’s candidate to lead San José’s Municipality next year.

Johnny Araya, the National Liberation Party’s disgraced former presidential candidate and former long-term mayor of Costa Rica's capital, denied recent rumors that he had meetings with leaders from the Accessibility Without Exclusion Party to run for mayor next year.

The ban means former presidential candidate Johnny Araya can't run for mayor of San José next year. He also can't continue to serve as an adviser to his party's 18 lawmakers in the Legislative Assembly.

A National Liberation Party ethics committee on Tuesday night ordered former Costa Rican presidential candidate Johnny Araya Monge to refrain from participating in any political activities for a period of four years, as a result of his decision to drop out of the presidential race on March 5.

The National Liberation Party’s (PLN) "non-candidate," Johnny Araya, left his home in Rohrmoser, a wealthy neighborhood west of San José, at 9:30 a.m. Sunday to begin Costa Rica's second-round Election Day.

Five days after being elected the presidential candidate of the ruling National Liberation Party, then-San José Mayor Johnny Araya flew to Panama in a private jet with Carlos Enrique Cerdas, the CEO of MECO construction, which has been awarded several public works projects, the weekly newspaper Semanario Universidad reported in its cover story on Wednesday.

The National Liberation Party candidate said that the proposed highway expansion would be publicly financed and not rely on a concession.