The rift in governing coalition continues

The rift in Panama's governing coalition appears to be widening with strong public comments coming from the leaders of both parties.

Vice President of Panama  and President of the Panamanista Party, Juan Carlos Varela, said  he was "surprised at the tone" of the statement from the Democratic Change party (CD)  that accused him and his party of "breaking  faith" over  approval of a change to  the presidential election system, allowing a run off vote if the leading candidate did not have  over 50 percent of the votes.

"Reforms should not only cover the topics that interest the political class, likethe second round, but are also important aspects of comprehensive reform that matter to people about justice and development of the country," said Varela on Friday, August 12.

He added that the new executive  of his party, once it is recognized by the Electoral Court, will discuss the second round and fix its position. "I have to be respectful of this transition, but the dialogue continues.You have to be focused more on issues of state," he said.

He said that the comments have come out of ignorance of how the coalition works. “The Coalition is to win Panama and unite the people looking for points of consensus." Earlier, Panama’s  president and chairman of the CD, Ricardo Martinelli, told Channel 13 that the a statement by the CD casting doubts on the Panamanista’s promises,  "reflects" the party's position regarding the performance of Panamanistas in the Coalition when they abstained from  voting on the second round issue.

According to Martinelli,  his coalition partners instead of supporting the second round abstained, "in clear contradiction to what they promised, to support this proposal via constitutional reform.".

Before the recent recess Panamanista deputies in the national assembly claimed that the CD had broken its promise to give their party the presidency of the National Assembly. Strong words were exchanged between members of both coalition parties.