Martinelli and Carrizo “eliminated” from presidential  race – Ruben Blades

Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades in his first political analysis of the year considers “eliminated” the chances of winning for presidential candidates Ricardo Martinelli, Melitón Arrocha, José Gabriel Gaby Carrizo, Zulay Rodríguez and Maribel Gordón.

He sees the choice between Ricardo Lombana, Martín Torrijos, and Rómulo Roux but he says “none of the three currently seems to convince or enchant the electorate on a massive scale.”

 It suggests according to Blades, a division of the vote for the elections of May 5 of this year, “never seen before”, and does not rule out the possibility of someone becoming president with less than 30% of the vote.

“Without boasting of being a wise man, a political scientist, or a prophet, I objectively perceive that the candidate to win is Rómulo Roux,” says Blades, who was the presidential standard bearer of the defunct Papa Egoró party, for the 1994 elections, a tournament in which he came third.

In the 2019 elections, Laurentino Cortizo, the PRD candidate, won the presidency with 33% of the votes. While Roux, CD’s standard-bearer, came in second place with 31%.

The artist also remembers that Roux was about to win the 2019 elections but today he is “accused of responsibility for the mining debacle,” as he is part of Morgan & Morgan, a law firm that represented Minera Panamá in the signing of the contract with the state; and that for some, says Blades, transforms him into a “losing candidate.”

“Lombana and Torrijos are going to divide the vote” of those who define themselves as anti-traditional parties, independents, early voters, and voters disenchanted with other parties.

“The Martinelli factor: For the person declared corrupt, the urgency lies in leaving him alone after his political disqualification with his economic capacity intact. I don’t see him imprisoned. They will sentence him to prison in the country, something that he is fulfilling because if he set foot outside Panama today he could be arrested (….).”

Martinelli, presidential candidate of the Realizing Goals (RM) and Alianza parties, was sentenced to 128 months in prison and paid a fine of $19.2 million, for laundering public funds to acquire the shares of Editora Panamá América, SA (Epasa), in the New Business case.

The sentence was handed down last July by criminal judge Baloisa Marquínez and ratified by the Superior Court for the Settlement of Criminal Cases.

However, his legal team appealed the measure before the Criminal Chamber of the Court, an office that must decide whether to admit it.

Blades reveals several “unknowns.” He asks if the young people, who protested against the mining contract last October and November, will go to the polls next May, and if so, will they vote for Lombana? , since he affirms that only the massive support of new voters could create the “momentum” that allows Lombana to surpass Roux.

He also states that no one knows “what” Lombana, Torrijos, Roux, and Blandón will do or say in the coming weeks, “but what they do could cause an increase or decrease in possible popular support at the polls.”

But Blades also has an analysis of the possible future of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), a group whose candidate is Vice President José Gabriel Gaby Carrizo.

He says that the PRD leadership “already knows that they will not repeat and must be actively negotiating spaces so as not to lose their positions in the post-May 2024 power banquet.”

“The Roux-Blandón list is by far the favorite with which to conclude political arrangements, especially in the legislative field.” win the election, given the “imminent disqualification of Martinelli” and the antagonism of Lombana and Torrijos towards the PRD and the RM party.

The PRD board is made up mainly of powerful deputies of the National Assembly: Benicio Robinson (president), Crispano Adames (first vice president), Raúl Pineda (third undersecretary), and Ricardo Torres (fourth undersecretary), among others.