President Ricardo Martinelli yesterday signed in a new law regulating the independent candidatures for presidential elections in Panama.
The law was sanctioned despite a call by the Electoral Tribunal and the opposition Frente por la Democracia de Panamá (FD) for it to be vetoed. Both groups stated that the law would granted benefits to the government and therefore called it “inconvenient and unconstitutional”.
The official party Cambio Democrático (CD) is the author of law #508, which makes changes to the electoral code, including the elimination of voting by party lists. The new law also establishes primaries six months prior to elections, and obliges independent candidates to collect a minimum of 2% of the total valid votes in the last elections in order to compete.
In a series of feisty parliamentary debates, the opposition pointed out the negative implications of the reforms, including the lack of requirements to disclose the financial sources of each campaign. Opponents of the bill are concerned about the origin of the resources as they suspect the current government will use the national budget for its campaign in the 2014 elections.
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