Presidential election in Panama | Counting begins, voters await results

(Panama) Polling stations closed their doors on Sunday at 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. Eastern time) and the wait for results for the eight presidential candidates, including poll favorite José Raul Mulino, replacing of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) convicted of money laundering and taking refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy.

The counting has begun, announced the president of the Electoral Tribunal Alfredo Junca who “asks everyone to accept the results of these elections with patience, prudence and responsibility”.

Lines of voters formed early as soon as the polling stations opened, where three million Panamanians were called to elect their president, renew the 71 deputies of the unicameral parliament and the regional governments.

Conservative lawyer José Raul Mulino, 64, was well ahead in the latest opinion poll, with more than 37% of voting intentions in this one-round election with a simple majority.

Three of the seven other contenders, although more than 20 points behind, could play spoilsport: the former social-democratic president Martin Torrijos (2004-2009) and two center-right candidates, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Romulo Roux and former consul Ricardo Lombana.

Once a candidate for a new mandate, Mr. Martinelli was caught by the courts, which sentenced him to 11 years in prison for money laundering. The 72-year-old billionaire is also being prosecuted for illegal wiretapping and corruption in the mega-scandal of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Unable to appear, Mr. Martinelli, who has taken refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy since February 7 with his dog Bruno, has designated José Raul Mulino, his running mate for the vice-presidency, as his successor. And it is thanks to Martinelli’s aura that Mulino soars above the opinion polls.

Mulino served as Minister of Security under the Martinelli mandate, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Justice. Between 2015 and 2016, he was placed in pre-trial detention for corruption, before being released for procedural errors.

” Besides ”

Panamanians estimate 65%, according to a Doxa poll, that if Mr Mulino wins, it is former President Martinelli who will act in the shadows. And who could, in the event of his runner-up’s victory, be offered safe conduct to Nicaragua or be pardoned. A scenario feared by the Panama branch of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International: “It would be the triumph of impunity,” fears its representative Lina Vega.

Moreover, after voting, Mr. Mulino went to the Nicaraguan embassy where he met Mr. Martinelli. The two men greeted each other with a warm hug, and exchanged “my brother”, “we will win”, according to a video published by the campaign team of the Realizando Metas (RM) party, founded by Mr. Martinelli.

“To prefer as president the direct representative of a fugitive convicted of corruption is to speak out in favor of cheating as a way of life and to publicly embrace corruption,” declared the famous Panamanian salsa singer Rubén Blades, who is personally involved in the campaign.

Unequal Panama

“Panama must change, there is too much corruption. We are tired,” said Jennifer Navarro, a 50-year-old teacher, at a polling station in the capital.

In addition, “the economic situation is very complex,” estimates economist Felipe Chapman. The balance sheet of the outgoing social democratic president Laurent Cortizo is undermined by a deficit of 7.2% and a public debt of 50 billion dollars.

The future president and his government will have to face weak economic forecasts with growth falling from 7.3% in 2023 to 2.5% in 2024, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The famous Panama Canal, the engine of the economy through which approximately 6% of global maritime trade passes, has had to limit its traffic due to a drought which has emptied the freshwater supply lakes of the locks and calls into question its sustainability.

And in a country whose GDP per capita is one of the highest in Latin America, two Panamas coexist: the capital with its luxurious skyscrapers and the rest of the country, rural, sometimes devoid of drinking water, electricity and local health services.

According to a World Bank report, “Panama remains one of the most unequal countries in the world.”

Around 45% of jobs are in the informal market, with an unemployment rate around 10% and a third of the rural population living in poverty.