Norwich — Republican mayoral candidate Peter Nystrom announced Friday that he plans to retire from his job as a UPS driver in mid-May.

Nystrom’s full-time job became a campaign issue with his opponents in Tuesday’s election, with all four other candidates pledging to work full-time, daytime hours in the mayor’s office. Norwich does not have a strong mayor form of government, with a city manager running daily city operations. But the mayor is the designated head of economic development.

Nystrom said he met with company retirement officials Friday and worked out his plan to retire in the second week of May, “win or lose” the election, he said.

“I’ve been looking at it for half a year,” Nystrom said Friday. “I’ll be 61 years old in February, and the job itself, the demands are getting to be too much. There isn’t a week that doesn’t go by when I don’t have furniture to deliver in my truck. It’s quality of life.”