“I recognize the president-elect of the Republic of Panama, Mr. José Raul Mulino,” said former consul Ricardo Lombana (center-right), who came in second place, to his supporters.
José Raul Mulino said he received these results with “responsibility and humility”. “I am no one’s puppet,” he insisted during a speech to his supporters. Unable to run, former President Ricardo Martinelli, who has taken refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy since February 7, had designated José Raul Mulino, his vice-presidential running mate, as his successor.
Martinelli’s successor
Three million Panamanians were called to elect their president, renew the 71 deputies of the unicameral parliament and the regional governments in this one-round election with a simple majority. Participation was high, at more than 77%.
The shadow of ex-President Martinelli, once a candidate for a new mandate but caught by the courts which sentenced him to 11 years in prison for money laundering, hung over this election. The 72-year-old billionaire is also being prosecuted for illegal wiretapping and corruption in the mega-scandal of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
José Raul Mulino was 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.
Moreover, after voting, José Raul Mulino went to the Nicaraguan embassy where he met Ricardo 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 Ricardo 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.
A country in economic crisis
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). Thousands of jobs were lost with the closure of Central America’s largest open-cast copper mine amid environmental protests and controversy over the concession contract.
And the Panama Canal, through which around 6% of world 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 with one of the highest GDP per capita in Latin America, Panama “remains one of the most unequal countries in the world,” according to a World Bank report.
