Martinelli election ploys in limbo

The attempts of jailed former president  Ricardo Martinelli to run as a candidate for deputy and for mayor of Panama are in limbo according to the Electoral Tribunal (TE).

Humberto Castillo, communications director of the TE, confirmed to La Prensa on Sunday that the Martinelli’s candidacies are not officially registered in the most recent electoral bulletin due to the challenges filed against him by the lawyer and ex-deputy Jorge Hernán Rubio.

Martinelli aspires to be a deputy for the circuit 8-8 (Don Bosco, Juan Diaz, Parque Lefevre, Rio Abajo and San Francisco), and mayor of the district of Panama. His substitutes are Mayín Correa and Sergio Chello Gálvez.

In a previous bulletin, published on February 16, Martinelli does appear as a candidate for both positions, postulated by the Alliance and Democratic Change parties. At that time, the Second Electoral Court had rejected some of the first challenges filed by Rubio.

These legal actions were based on Article 435 of the Electoral Code , which includes among the grounds for contesting the residence of the candidate, who -according to Rubio- in the case of Martinelli is not the jurisdiction that would correspond by law, but El Renacerprison  , where he has been detained since June 2018, after being extradited from the United States to face trial for illegal wiretapping.

The first challenges were rejected by the electoral court since Rubio presented them outside the legal term.

When presented again, both legal actions must be processed and decided by a court and, for that reason, the candidacies do not appear in the last electoral bulletin and they are not firm, explained Castillo.

Until now, as Martinelli has not been convicted, his candidatures can be validated, according to article 9 of the Electoral Code.