Panamanians choose new president, lawmakers

Monday, May 4, 2009 at 6:04 AM Posted by Beijing News


Panamanians voted Sunday to decide who will lead this small but strategically-vital country at a crossroads for world trade, which is eyeing a multibillion-dollar upgrade of its fabled canal.

Voters are choosing a new president between supermarket mogul Ricardo Martinelli, who has vowed to run the country like a company, and Balbina Herrera, a one-time leftist firebrand reportedly linked to former dictator Manuel Noriega.

Balloting began throughout the country at 7:00 am 1200 GMT, as scheduled, and closed at 2100 GMT. Results were expected about 90 minutes later.

Martinelli -- a 57-year-old multimillionaire whose business empire includes supermarkets, banks and agricultural firms -- has the lead going into the vote according to polls, despite government backing for his rival, who is known across the country simply as "Balbina."

Despite breakneck economic growth -- led by a construction boom that has transformed Panama City's skyline, which now looks more like Manhattan than other Central American capitals -- both campaigns have focused on bringing wealth to the poorest Panamanians.

Massive income disparities still exist in Panama -- on the Central American land bridge between Colombia and Costa Rica -- and where 28 percent of the population of more than three million lives in poverty.

In the capital, slums sit a stone's throw from the presidential palace, in a Spanish colonial quarter that is home to jazz clubs, boutique hotels and upscale ice-cream parlors.

Martinelli has tapped into popular discontent, promising to "walk in the shoes" of the ordinary citizens, who have been hit by rising prices.

Much of the country's wealth remains in the hands of a few families with European roots.

Polls show him ahead of Herrera by between 11 and 16 points.

Whoever wins the vote will oversee a massive 5.25-billion-dollar project to expand the congested Panama Canal, by adding a third set of locks that can handle ships laden with up to 12,000 containers each.

The 55-mile 80-kilometer inter-oceanic waterway handles an estimated five percent of world trade, and most of the trade in goods between China and the east coast of the United States.

After an early lead, Herrera has suffered from a wave of criticism of the ruling center-left Revolutionary Democratic Party PRD, which many accuse of not doing enough to redistribute vast income from shipping, banking, construction and multi-billion dollar bond sales.

The PRD has also been criticized for failing to tackle fragile public safety, particularly in Panama City and the down-at-heel Atlantic port city of Colon.

Current president Martin Torrijos -- the son of former general Omar Torrijos who was mysteriously killed in a plane crash -- has come under fire for failing to reform Panama City's sclerotic public transport system.

Today the capital is served by a network of privately-owned US school buses, know to locals as Diablos Rojos, or "red devils."

Under Panama's constitution Torrijos cannot run again, which led to the PRD selecting Herrera as its candidate.

Some 2.2 million people were eligible to vote. Voters were also electing 71 members of the national assembly, mayors and members of municipal councils.





South Korean dancers perform a traditional dance during a memorial service in Seoul. AFP/Kim Jae-Hwan

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)