José Raúl Mulino, designated as the potential successor to discredited ex-leader Ricardo Martinelli, takes the lead in Panama’s presidential elections with 34.14% of the vote, surpassing 57% of the count, according to unofficial results released by the Electoral Tribunal (TE).
Aged 64, Mulino, who appeared at the top of the rare polls released before the vote, was named at the last moment by the TE as presidential candidate of the alliance of the Realizando Metas (RM) and Alianza parties, replacing Martinelli, who was disqualified due to a sentence of more than ten years in prison for money laundering.
In second position was Ricardo Lombana, the anti-system candidate of the new Other Way Movement (Moca), with 24.84% of the votes, and in third position, former president Martín Torrijos (2004-2009), representative of the Party Minority Popular (PP), with 15.84%.
The candidate of the coalition of the Cambio Democrático (CD) and Partido Panameñista parties, Rómulo Roux, occupied the fourth place with 12.34%, while the fifth position went to the representative of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and vice-president Panamanian, José Gabriel Carrizo, with 6.09% of the votes.
More than three million voters were called to the polls to elect, among 885 candidates, a president and a vice-president, 71 deputies to the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), 20 to the Central American Parliament, 81 mayors, 701 corregimiento representatives and 11 councilors, all with their substitutes, for the period 2024-2029.
The election day was characterized by high participation and the absence of significant incidents, apart from some occasional reports of alleged irregularities concerning the ballots and the vigor of supporters of the different parties.
Mulino’s candidacy was uncertain until last Friday, when the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), meeting behind closed doors since Tuesday, declared the presidential candidacy of conservative José Raúl Mulino constitutional.
The candidate of Salvar Panamá assumed the role of replacement for former president Ricardo Martinelli, after the confirmation of his sentence to almost eleven years in prison for money laundering, and will take refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy.
