Panamanians vote this Sunday in a general election agitated by the controversial former president Ricardo Martinelli, whose dolphin is favorite to win the presidency of a country burdened by corruption and a gloomy economic and social outlook.
Of eight presidential candidates, José Raúl Mulino, of the Realizing Goals party (RM, founded by Martinelli), leads in the polls by about 20 points to his three immediate rivals: the former social democratic president Martín Torrijos and the center-right lawyers Rómulo Roux and Ricardo Lombana.
64-year-old right-wing lawyer, with a strong character and gray hair, Mulino took over from Martinelli after he was disqualified as a candidate after confirming a conviction against him for money laundering.
Among a swarm of journalists, Mulino voted and then visited Martinelli at the Nicaraguan embassy, where he sought refuge in February due to his imminent capture.
“Brother!” and “We are going to win!”, they say to each other when they hug each other in an embassy room, according to a video that Martinelli published on the social network X.
Just two days before the vote, the court endorsed Mulino’s candidacywhich had been challenged for not having gone through primaries or having a vice president on the payroll.
In addition to electing a ruler for the next five years in single-round elections, three million of the 4.4 million Panamanians They are called to choose 71 deputies and local governments.
“We are in a country in political, social, economic and environmental crisis”, a 74-year-old retiree, who only gave her last name Mollick, told AFP. She was wearing a T-shirt that read: “If I protest like a lion, I don’t vote like a donkey.”
In a country without leftist parties, The main 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, at a polling station in the southwest of the capital.
President Laurentino Cortizo, of the social democratic Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD, majority), He is booed for the scandalous payment of juicy state scholarships to politicians and their families. The official candidate, José Gabriel Carrizo, appears low in the polls.
But it is paradoxical that Martinelli, also accused of telephone spying and bribery by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, enjoy great popularity.
“It will be the triumph of impunity”said Lina Vega, president of Transparency International in Panama, regarding the possibility that Mulino, if he wins, will grant him safe passage to travel to Nicaragua.
But many Panamanians long for the economic boom of the 72-year-old billionaire’s government (2009-2014), driven by large infrastructure works.
“Panama has moved forward. Anyone who does not accept it is very scoundrel,” Alberto Cedeño, a 41-year-old employee of the Colón free zone, told AFP.
Although the economy grew 7.3% in 2023this 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 some 40,000 jobs and 5% of GDP, began litigation to claim $20 billion in compensation.
The Heritage
Cortizo leaves behind a fiscal deficit of 7.4%a public debt of 50,000 million and a collapsed social security system.
“The fiscal and 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 it is that 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, education, health services and even garbage collection.
“Panama continues to be one of the most unequal countries in the world,” according to a recent World Bank report.
Although it is in its territory, the humanitarian drama of the dangerous Darién jungle, where half a million migrants passed through in 2023, does not seem to move Panamanians or the candidates.
Mulino, Martinelli’s former Security Minister with a reputation for being authoritarian, promised to “close the Darien.” Your adversaries will only control the situation.
The presidential election is decided by a simple majority and the results are expected about four hours after the polls close, at 4 p.m. local time (6 p.m. in Argentina).
