Filling the gap for ”vacationing” prosecutor

CEILA PEÑALBA ORDÓÑEZ has been named as deputy to beleagured electoral prosecutor Eduardo Peñaloza.

The announcement came from President Juan Carlos Varela who also named Yara Campo Berrio as a substitute judge in the Electoral Tribunal (TE).
The announcement of the appointment of Peñalba Ordóñez comes after the presiding judge of the TE, Erasmo Pinilla, warned that Eduardo Peñaloza could have left the office after going on vacation for four months and illegally appointing an alternate.
According to Pinilla, Penaloza violated the rule by appointing an alternate, when the power belongd only to the President of the Republic, with subsequent ratification by the National Assembly.
Peñalba Ordóñez served as general secretary of the Electoral Tribunal of Panama since 1998 and has 20 years of service in the TE, according to the resume posted on the website of the agency. She graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Panama and has graduate degrees in law from universities in Brazil and Master of Procedural Law at the American University of Panama.
Campo Berrio will act as substitute to Eduardo Valdes Escoffery in the TE.