Election Results

[Keith Woolford]

Well, at 7:00 p.m. with about 40% of the popular vote counted, it appears we're going to have a new President, Juan Carlos Varela.  You can follow the results at this site. Nothing published yet in the race for Mayor of Boquete.

http://www.tribunal-electoral.gob.pa/index.html

[Keith Woolford]

The reality of that scenario John, is that the other candidate has unlimited resources with which to mount another campaign. I personally have nothing against Atenas but she is a very young woman with little or limited community experience.

[Keith Woolford]

The hearing at the Tribunal Electoral regarding the challenge against Manolo Ruiz' election as Diputado for the area is scheduled for this Monday the 21st. I have seen where the challenger is so confident that she has her truck all painted up with Diputada on the door. Almost every other impugnacion has gone against the CD winner so it will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

[Mateo]

When a president or  prime minister (of any kind, anywhere) has to share power with a parliament or legislature (of any kind, anywhere), it's all "inside baseball" and "You can't tell the players without a scorecard".

It looks like an outsider, watching without such a scorecard, could conclude that a Tribunal Electoral decision against the CD is a decision that favors the Panameñista/Perredista working majority.

[Keith Woolford]

There is no doubt in my mind that Manolo will get the short end of this stick. I am sure someone will be able to demonstrate that he robbed Peter to pay Paul in order to get stuff done at one time or another. The hearing will probably take at least a few days, with the decision to follow about 30 days hence.

[Tintin]

New elections will be held.

También se tomó una decisión en el circuito 4-5 (Boquete, Dolega y Gualaca) en cuanto a la demanda de impugnación de elecciones interpuesta por Athenas Athanasiadis (PRD) en contra del exalcalde de Boquete, Manolo Ruiz (CD).

El TE decidió decretar nula la proclamación de este último, por haber manejado de forma discrecional fondos públicos para beneficiar a electores de su circuito.

Source : La Prensa

[Keith Woolford]

No surprise there.

[Keith Woolford]

This is only a proposal.

[Keith Woolford]

This proposal got kicked in the National Assembly 08/08/2014 LaPrensa

[Lee Zeltzer]

Considering CD will not be able to muster enough votes to prevent this from passing it will happen. This will give Varela the working majority in the Assembly as long as he can keep the PRD in line with him.

[Mateo]

Turnabout is fair play.

La Prensa on how the previous administration got its working majority:

                   http://www.prensa.com/especiales/diputados-transfugas