From Panama City
The right-wing lawyer and diplomat José Raúl Mulino was elected president of Panama in the general elections this Sunday, May 5. At the time of going to press, the Unofficial Transmission of Results (TER) system had counted 74.37 percent of the votes, and gave Mulino 34.25 percent of the valid votes cast, 9 points away from the other contenders. in line with what most polls predicted.
Mulino is the political heir of former president Ricardo Martinelli, who originally headed the Realizing Goals party formula, but was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for money laundering and disqualified from holding public office. This is how Mulino, previously a candidate for vice president, began to compete for the leadership of the country. By presenting himself with an incomplete pairing and not having been elected by internal parties as stipulated by the electoral law, a group of lawyers filed an unconstitutionality lawsuit against him.
Only on May 3, two days before the elections and in a climate of great uncertainty, the Supreme Court of Justice resolved the lawsuit and enabled his candidacy in a ruling that was not without controversy. In fact, on election day and in a highly discussed event, Mulino visited Martinelli at the Nicaraguan embassy where the former president is taking refuge, after alleging “persecution for political reasons” and obtaining asylum from the Sandinista government.
Mulino is a veteran of local politics. He was vice chancellor and chancellor of the government of Guillermo Endara (1989-1994), served as a substitute magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice in 1994 and was at the head of two Ministries in the government of Martinelli (2009-2014): that of Government and Justice and Public Security, from which he founded his reputation as a tough politician. In fact, he was responsible for emblematic repressions of social protest, such as that which occurred in Bocas del Toro in 2010, which claimed the lives of union leaders Antonio Smith and Virgilio Castillo.
His authoritarian profile is highlighted by his recent statements, where proposed “closing” the Darién jungle on the Panamanian border with Colombia, where hundreds of thousands of Caribbean and South American migrants move annually who seek to reach the United States.
The results
Below Mulino was Ricardo Lombana of the Otro Camino Movement, who had already caused a surprise in 2019 by placing third running as an independent candidate. The lawyer and communicator climbed another position, repeating a very good performance, and reaching 25.04 percent of the votes.
In third place was Martín Torrijos, son of de facto president Omar Torrijos, who obtained 15.96 for the Popular Party; Rómulo Roux was fourth, driven by the alliance between Cambio Democrático and the traditional Panameñista Party, with 11.47; and fifth Zulay Rodríguez with 6.15, a testimonial candidate and PRD deputy who was competing for two other elective positions at the same time. But the official candidate of the PRD, the party in government during the presidency of Laurentino Cortizo, suffered a real debacle. Punished by the citizens, his representative José Gabriel Carrizo, in alliance with MOLIRENA, obtained only 5.82 percent of the votes. Lastly was the free candidate Maribel Gordón, representative of the left and progressivism, with 1.06 percent.
The level of electoral participation, traditionally high, slightly exceeded that of the 2019 elections, placing it around the 77 percent. On the other hand, once again the tradition of alternation that Panama has sustained since the return to democracy is confirmed; In the last 35 years no party was again at the head of the executive, although six of the seven five-year terms were chaired by the Panameñista Party and the PRD. In fact, despite the fact that the standard-bearer of the historic Torrijismo party had a terrible performance, 5 of the 8 candidates in the elections are or were linked in the recent past to that political formation, which continues to retain the largest number of members and the most powerful territorial structure in the country.
In addition to the executive, the National Assemblythe country’s unicameral legislative body, renovated all of its 71 benches. Panama will now have a much more fragmented parliament than before. The president-elect’s government will not have its own majority and will have to negotiate its bills with five opposition parties and two independent lists with parliamentary representation (although in reality one functions as a satellite of the PRD). At the closing of this note, 15 of the 71 total seats still remained to be assigned. In the preliminary balance, only 13 corresponded to the new ruling party (12 for Realizing Goals and one for the Alianza Party). The rest were distributed between the PRD (12), Democratic Change (11), the Panameñista Party (7), the Otro Camino Movement (2), the Popular Party (1) and 10 for two of the three free nomination lists.
The challenges of the new government
Panama has just gone through conflictive years, with a government that was paralyzed by the emergency of the pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine, which seriously affected supply chains, a sensitive fact in a country that derives a good part of its income from the income obtained in the strategic interoceanic canal.
Furthermore, recently the most important social protests have been recorded since the resistance to the US invasion of 1989. The high cost of living, the poor quality of public services and social inequality In a country that was declared by the World Bank as the fourth most unequal on the planet, they were a permanent focus of conflict during the Cortizo administration. Added to that was a resisted contract signed between the Panamanian State and a local subsidiary of the transnational mining company First Quantum Mineralswhich operated an open pit copper mine in Donoso.
Mulino’s government will have to face complex challenges. One of the first unknowns is whether or not the president will try to pardon Martinelli. Although Panamanian legislation contemplates this possibility, the Penal Code is very explicit in defining that only those convicted of political crimes can be pardoned.
Another challenge is the economy, which has begun to visibly slow down, after registering some of the highest growth rates in the region. The water crisis that affects the operation of the canal aggravates this scenario. Finally, there are the recurring corruption scandals, low tax collection, the Social Security Fund crisis, as well as the burning immigration issue.
