MEXICO CITY - Panamanians, enjoying one of the fastest-growing economies in the hemisphere, voted Sunday in a presidential election to either keep the governing party - and elect the president's wife as vice president - or install one of six opposition candidates vowing to maintain the good times but without the incumbent party's controversies over power-grabbing, corruption and cronyism.
It would seem the party of President Ricardo Martinelli had much to give it a sharp advantage: a newly opened subway line in Panama City, the first in Central America, and plans for an expansion. A new, if controversial, highway bypassing the city's old quarter. A skyscraper forest across the capital reflecting the cash pouring in from corporations and wealthy immigrants and speculators of all stripes. And an economy that is among the fastest growing in the hemisphere, as the Panama Canal undergoes a $5.2 billion expansion that could accelerate it more.
But while Mr. Martinelli has approval ratings around 60 percent, the final round of polls and early returns on Sunday night showed the candidate of his right-leaning party, Democratic Change, in a close race. His two main rivals have vowed to continue the big spending but without the iron fist and cronyism they say Mr. Martinelli has wielded.
Voters formed long lines all day, and there were few irregularities, said Jennifer L. McCoy, Americas director of the Carter Center, who observed the balloting. One last-minute dirty trick she cited, in which fake editions of a major newspaper claimed that two candidates had withdrawn, was typical of the mudslinging in what political analysts said could be the closest of the four presidential contests since the United States invasion in 1989 toppled Manuel Noriega's dictatorship and ushered in a new era of democracy.
Opponents of the incumbent party, which Mr. Martinelli, 62, founded five years ago, warned that democracy could be under threat.
Mr. Martinelli, a quick-tempered supermarket magnate who shook up the political establishment five years ago as an outsider with a commanding win, could not seek another term. But his wife, Marta Linares de Martinelli, was his party's vice-presidential candidate, while a political neophyte, José Domingo Arias, led the ticket. The choice of Mr. Arias, 50, a former housing minister, led opponents to doubt that Mr. Martinelli would really give up power if his party won.
Mr. Arias has sought to ride Mr. Martinelli's popularity with promises to continue big public works and social programs, but he lacks the president's flair for the dramatic and blunt talk that endeared supporters and turned off opponents.
Supporters of two other candidates - Juan Carlos Navarro, 52, a former two-term mayor of Panama City representing the left-of-center Democratic Revolutionary Party, and Juan Carlos Varela, 50, of the right-of-center Panameñista Party - have accused Mr. Martinelli of corruption, lacking transparency in governing and illegally participating in the campaign with a spate of ribbon cuttings and warnings that the economy could falter if his party loses.
His wife's presence on the ticket also has been questioned, as Panamanian law forbids the sitting president's blood relatives from seeking the country's top two offices. It is unclear if spouses would violate the spirit of the prohibition.
'Her nomination evidences a desire by Martinelli to remain powerful after the elections,' said Orlando J. Pérez, a political scientist at Central Michigan University who studies Panamanian politics and was in Panama City for the election.
Mr. Pérez said her candidacy could backfire, as Panamanian voters tend to fret over concentrations of power. The opposition has run strongly despite improvements in the country, including social programs aimed at helping the poor, older people and schoolchildren, because 'the historic tendency in Panama is to vote for the opposition,' he said.
'Every one of the previous four presidential elections since 1990 has been won by the opposition,' Mr. Pérez said.
Analysts said that signs the economy's surge is slowing - it grew 8.4 percent last year after consecutive years of double-digit expansion - could worry voters, who also are paying more for basic goods as inflation rises. Panama has a wide inequality gap, with more than a quarter of the population of four million in poverty. Crime remains serious. Infrastructure problems, including traffic, chronic urban flooding and power shortages, could also play against Mr. Arias.
Mr. Arias's opponents have thrown sharp elbows - mainly at Mr. Martinelli.
Ruben Blades, the Panamanian salsa star and actor who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1994 and served as tourism minister in the mid-2000s, posted a statement on his website declining to endorse any candidate but warning that electing Mr. Arias would constitute a re-election of Mr. Martinelli. He called that a 'dangerous risk for Panamanian democracy.'
'I state clearly that I reject any attempt to impose a re-election, be it openly or underhanded,' he said.
Mr. Varela has accused Mr. Martinelli and his sons of taking kickbacks in exchange for government contracts. Italian prosecutors are investigating whether the Italian defense firm Finmeccanica paid bribes to foreign governments, including Panama's, but no Panamanian officials have been charged. Mr. Varela's supporters suggest Mr. Martinelli put his wife up to running in part to ensure an Arias cabinet would not pursue any case against him.
Mr. Arias, in turn, accused Mr. Varela of being close to drug traffickers, a provocative charge in a country where Mr. Noriega was deposed to face charges in the United States of drug trafficking and money laundering. On Saturday, Mr. Varela found himself denying rumors that his American visa had been suspended, with a statement by the American Embassy backing him up.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, May 4, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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