Controversial Toronto Mayor Abandons Re-election Bid at the Last Minute

Barely half an hour before the deadline to set the final ballot, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford backed out from his re-election race Friday. The eleventh-hour drama unfolded when his brother and campaign manager Doug Ford was formally registered as a candidate in the Mayoral race in place of Rob, The New York Times reports.

Amid building pressure to withdraw his candidature, Rob Ford continued to carry on his campaign in full swing, only to withdraw in the last minute citing health issues.

While Ford is in a hospital for the treatment of a tumor, it has been learnt that he is now planning on running for a position on the city council, The Guardian reports. He was admitted to the hospital Wednesday after he complained of acute stomach aches, and was later diagnosed with abdominal tumor.

In May 2013, Gawker revealed that it had been offered videos of Ford smoking crack cocaine. He kept denying the charges and said that there was no way that such a video could exist. However, in a raid in November, police recovered the video and it was only then that Ford accepted that the video must have been taken "during one of my drunken stupors," The Los Angeles Times reports.

Even though the controversy changed his image in the public eye, Ford is not ready to leave politics. He is set to run as a city council candidate in place of his nephew Michael Ford, who withdrew his candidacy Friday.

"With the advice of my family and doctors, I know I need to focus on getting better. There is much work to be done, and I can't give it my all at this point in time. My heart is heavy when I tell you that I'm unable to continue my campaign for re-election as your mayor," Rob Ford wrote in a statement.