Lawyer José Raúl Mulino emerged as the winner of the presidential elections this Sunday in Panama, according to official results.
Mulino, candidate of the Save Panama alliance, has 34.41% of the votes, followed by Ricardo Lombana, of the Other Path Movement (MOCA), who accumulates 24.96%, according to data from the Electoral Tribunal with more than 94% of the votes counted.
Mulino obtained more than 738,000 votes compared to Lombana’s more than 536,000.
Mulino’s victory was made official by the president of the Electoral Tribunal, Alfredo Juncá during a video call with Mulino in which he expressed his satisfaction with the results and indicated that he assumes them with responsibility and humility.
“It implies an enormous weight on my shoulders, which I accept with pleasure.”said.
“I commit to the country to establish a government of national unity as soon as possible,” he added.
Shortly before the official results were announced, Lombana recognized Mulino’s victory and congratulated him on his victory.
“We are the first opposition force in the Republic of Panama,” said Lombana. “Today the new and good politics have won.”
Previously, former president Martín Torrijos, who hoped to return to the presidency and obtained around 16% of the votes, admitted his defeat and asked the new Executive to “government for all Panamanians”.
Rómulo Roux, representative of Por Un Mejor Panama, also recognized Mulino’s victory and expressed: “The people chose a different proposal than ours.”
Although he appeared as a favorite in the polls, Mulino only entered the presidential race a couple of months ago, when he replaced former president Ricardo Martinelli, who was disqualified from running after being convicted of money laundering.
Martinelli sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama to avoid being detained and was visited there this Sunday by Mulino.
This Sunday’s elections have been characterized by a high participation, almost 77%, which makes it the most attended process in the last three decades.
Between the boom and the closure of the Darién
Mulino, a 64-year-old lawyer specializing in maritime law from Tulane University in New Orleans, managed to advance quickly in the polls – according to analysts – thanks to a specific strategy: promising voters that Panama will recover the economic prosperity and high levels of job creation that characterized the Martinelli government (2009 – 2014).
During the first two years of that government, Panama had the fastest growing economy in Latin America, in part thanks to the construction of large works such as the expansion of the Panama Canal and the first Metro line in the country’s capital.
During Martinelli’s mandate, Mulino was Minister of Government and Justice. He then took over as Minister of Public Security, a newly created portfolio that brought together all security forces.
Previously, in the early 1990s, Mulino had been vice foreign minister and then chancellor in the government of President Guillermo Endara.
Mulino has proclaimed that during his term as Minister of Public Security he expelled the extinct guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) from the Darién jungle, a claim that is disputed by some experts who affirm that that was the time in which The irregular migration began through that dense jungle, located on the border with Colombia.
During the campaign, Mulino promised to close that jungle on the Panama side, which in recent years has become a massive migratory corridor where numerous mafias and criminal organizations operate.
“We are going to close Darién and we are going to repatriate all these people accordingly, respecting human rights”Mulino said recently, without clarifying how he will close that route through which more than half a million migrants traveled in 2023.
“Mission accomplished, damn it”
“Mission accomplished, damn it”Mulino shouted as he began his victory speech before a group of followers who had gathered to wait for the results of the presidential elections.
Mulino complained about the difficulties his candidacy had faced, referring to legal challenges that almost left him out of the race, and claimed to have become president with the vote of the majority of citizens.
He said that, despite this, he did not come to power with the intention of making anyone responsible for what happened.
“Enough of carrying revenge as a flag,” he said. “Political persecution is over; The manipulation of the Public Ministry is over; The manipulation of judges and magistrates is over,” he added.
Mulino also had kind words for Martinelli. “Mission accomplished, Ricardo,” he said.
He affirmed that his government will be favorable to companies and investment, but without forgetting the most disadvantaged.
“We cannot forget those who are hungry, those who want a job and those who need drinking water in the country every day,” he noted.
He assured that he would establish a dialogue with all political forces with a view to the creation of a government of national unity to advance the national agenda.
The convenience of seeking a unity government seems evident in the preliminary results of this Sunday’s parliamentary elections, when those who will occupy the 71 seats in the National Assembly were also chosen and where apparently no group will have a significant majority.
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