Mayor’s future in hands of Electoral Tribunal

The travails of Panama’s  bumbling mayor Bosco Vallarino are not over, with a new boondoggle coming to light and  the possibility that he could face jail for perjury.

His  future,  says a report in La Prensa is in the hands of the Electoral Tribunal and he could cease to be mayor and spend up to one year in prison, depending on the decision taken by the judges of the Tribunal (TE).
When he decided to run for mayor he was required to state his nationality but on application forms in February 2009 failed to indicate indicated that he had acquired another nationality.

Not until  April 2, 2009-a month before the elections, after media reports, did he indicated that he had U.S. citizenship.

The Office of Elections maintains that neither in the electoral process nor at the National Civil Registry is their an express waiver of U.S. citizenship by Vallarino. and that the resolution of the National Assembly,restoring his Panamanian citizenship has nothing to do with the false statement he made  in February 2009.

Article 391 of the  Electoral Code says that the punishment for a false statement considered perjury, is  imprisonment from three to 12 months and disqualification .

Meanwhile the anti-corruption prosecutor has appealed a judge’s decision that Vallarino does not have to appear for interrogation over the drawing of a $4,000 check for his wife to travel to Taiwan.

Now the controversial purchase of 21,000 toys by the mayor for community distribution continues to dog him.

María Olimpia de Obaldia, head of Taxes for the Municipality, said that the toys are in Customs. 

Councillors are upset that they did not arrive in time for Christmas.