Brian Cowen, the outgoing Taoiseach and ousted leader of the Fianna Fail party, has confirmed that he will not stand in Ireland's forthcoming general election.
In a radio interview, the former finance minister who has led the country at the head of a coalition government since 2008, said he was quitting his Laois/Offaly constituency voluntarily.
"I have to take things into consideration now in the context of the fact of having been Taoiseach and leader of the party and former leader and giving a break to the new leader," he told Midlands Radio.
"It was not a question of Micheal [Martin, the new Fianna Fail leader] expecting me to stand aside." Cowen said he had also taken his family's wishes into consideration.
He will formally dissolve the Dail (Ireland's parliament) on Tuesday and name a date for the eagerly awaited general election.
More than 30 TDs, members of the Dail, have announced that they will not be standing - ensuring that there will be a major change around in political figures during a contest expected to be dominated by recrimination over country's debt-burdened economy.
Fianna Fail, consistently the most successful political party in western Europe over recent decades, is expected to lose large numbers of seats.
An opinion poll at the weekend in the Sunday Business Post put support for Fine Gael and Labour, the main opposition parties favoured to form the next government at 33 percent and 23 percent respectively. Fianna Fail had dropped to 16 percent.
Earlier, Martin presented a 21-member frontbench team, whichincludes three election candidates who have yet to win a parliamentary seat. Reflecting the battle for survival that Fianna Fail candidates face, two of Martin's team, new deputy leader Mary Hanafin and new health spokesman Barry Andrews, are competing in the same parliamentary district.