Fresh calls for independent judiciary in Panama

ON THE EVE of the selection of a new President of the Supreme Court voices one again are calling for an independent judiciary and not dependent on the executive branch.

The current favored contender for the role is ex Attorney General Jose Ayu Prado who owes his appointment to that post to President Ricardo Martinelli, who followed up with an appointment to the Supreme Court.

 Former judge Edgardo Molino Mola, who said that a judge who fails on merit an appointment to the court is subject to pay favors to those who appointed him.

"The problem is that many people look for the job and that makes it vulnerable to any favor asked of you," he told Prensa.com.

Molino said changes to the election of judges of the Supreme Court were prepared by him and eight constitutionalists and given to the current government administration.
He said that the document had proposed that the selection of judges be through competition and the creation of two evaluation committees .

"The project has been archived because the President [Ricardo Martinelli] did not like the findings of the Constitutional Court," he said .

In recent months guilds of lawyers and civil society leaders have spoken out against the actions of the current president of the Supreme Court, Alejandro Moncada Luna, and have called for his removal after rulings he gave that were deemed unconstitutional. Luna had been seeking reelection to the president’s role but, in the face of widespread criticism withdrew when it became clear that he was unlikely to muster enough votes from his fellow judges on the bench. The vote takes place Thursday, January 2.