José Raúl Mulino won the presidential elections in Panama this Sunday. The 64-year-old lawyer beat former social democratic president Martín Torrijos, former chancellor Rómulo Roux and former consul Ricardo Lombana.
After nine hours of voting, with participation exceeding 70%, the polls closed at 4:00 p.m.
More than three million voters were called to the polls to electfrom among 885 candidates, for a president and a vice president, 71 deputies to the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), 20 to the Central American Parliament, 81 mayors, 701 township representatives and 11 councilors, all with their substitutes, for the period 2024 -2029.
With a strong character and gray hair, Mulino, the dolphin of the disqualified former president Ricardo Martinelli, replaced him as candidate of the Realizing Goals party (RM, initials of the former president), after he was disqualified as a candidate after confirming a conviction in his against almost 11 years.
Among a swarm of journalists, Mulino voted early and then visited Martinelli at the Nicaraguan embassy where he sought asylum in February to avoid prison.
“Brother!” and “We are going to win!”, they said to each other when they hugged in a room at the embassy, according to a video that Martinelli published on the social network X.
Keeping the country in suspense, justice endorsed, just two days before the vote, Mulino’s candidacy, which had been challenged for not having gone through primaries or having a vice president on the payroll.
In addition to electing a ruler for five years in single-round elections and by simple majority, 3 million of the 4.4 million Panamanians were called to choose 71 deputies and local governments.
The head of the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) of the Organization of American States (OAS), former Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, spoke of a “really active” participation of the voters, who attended the polls “with great desire, with great joy,” and of a development of the process “within reasonableness and normality”.
In a country without leftist parties, the candidates made similar promises: bulk jobs, economic dynamism and anti-corruption reforms.
“Panama has to change, there is too much corruption. We are tired”said Jennifer Navarro, a 50-year-old teacher.
President Laurentino Cortizo, of the majority Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD, social democrat), is booed for the scandalous payment of juicy scholarships to politicians and their families. The official candidate, José Gabriel Carrizo, always appeared very low in the polls.
But Martinelli, also charged with telephone spying and bribery by the Brazilian construction company Odebrechtis popular due to the economic boom that the country experienced during its government (2009-2014), driven by large infrastructure works.
“Panama advanced. “Whoever does not accept it is very shameless.”said to AFP Alberto Cedeño, employee of the Colón free zone, 41 years old.
“It will be the triumph of impunity,” said Lina Vega, president of Transparency International in Panamagiven the possibility that Mulino, if he wins, will give the 74-year-old magnate safe passage to travel to Nicaragua.
The channel and finances
Although the economy grew 7.3% in 2023, this year it will slow down to 2.5% according to the IMF, hit by the drought that affects the canal and the closure of a copper mine after massive protests in defense of the environment.
Threatening its competitiveness, the canal reduced ship traffic due to low water levels; while the Canadian mining company, which generated 40,000 jobs and 5% of GDPbegan litigation to claim $20 billion in compensation.
Cortizo leaves behind a fiscal deficit of 7.4%, a public debt of 50,000 million and a collapsed social security system.
“The economic situation is very complex,” said economist Felipe Chapman, for whom the next president, who would deal with a fragmented parliament, must take adjustment measures and then seek economic growth with social progress.
And in the country with one of the highest GDP per capita in Latin America, two Panamas coexist: that of its capital with skyscrapers, luxurious apartments and advanced roads, and that of communities without drinking water, electricity, health services and even garbage collection.
“Panama continues to be one of the most unequal countries in the world”according to a World Bank report.
Although it is in its territory, the humanitarian drama of the dangerous Darién jungle, through which half a million migrants passed in 2023, does not seem to move Panamanians and was almost absent in the electoral campaign.
Mulino, Martinelli’s former Security Minister with a reputation for being authoritarian, promised to “close Darién.” His only adversaries will control the situation.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
