Supreme court rules Assembly Bosco decision unconstitutional

Panama’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday, that  a National Assembly resolution retroactively returning Panamanian citizenship to Bosco Vallarino was unconstitutional.

The Assembly move, made in the balmy days of the coalition government, enabled Vallarino to take his seat as Mayor of Panama, although he had failed to declare his US citizenship when running for office. The courts decision was widely anticipated.

The presiding judge of the Electoral Tribunal (TE), Gerardo Solís said Roxana Mendez, who stepped into the Mayor’s job when Bosco  resigned, January 12, for health reasons, after a reported confrontation with President Martinelli,  is entitled to the position of Mayor of Panama, as she  ran in the 2009 general elections as a substitute for Bosco Vallarino, who resigned his post January 12.