Two PRD candidates with criminal convictions are barred

The Electoral Court (TE) has alerted the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) that two of the candidates who had been chosen in primary elections will not be able to participate in the general elections on May 5, 2024, because they have criminal convictions.

According to the president of the National Election Commission, Víctor Vergara, the political parties and candidates for free nomination are subject to an agreement signed between the Electoral Court and the Public Ministry in which each candidate signs a declaration accepting that information is collected about their criminal and police history. He maintained that, in effect, there are two cases of disqualifications of candidates who won the primaries and that prior to this last application process that closes on October 31, the PRD was informed that there were two specific disqualifications, one from the province of Los Santos, in the district of Las Tablas, and another in a township in the district of Mariato, in the province of Veraguas.

 According to Vergara, when the TE  observes that there is a sentence greater than 60 months, it informs the party that that person cannot run for the position to which he aspires.”These issues are quite drastic, since a person who is sanctioned for more than 60 months, according to how the rule is written, is disqualified for life from exercising his right to be elected,” said Vergara.