OPINION: Undermining the electoral process

The irresponsible decision of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) to reschedule the presidential debates less than 100 days before the general elections undermines the integrity of the current electoral period. The abrupt cancellation of the debate scheduled for Wednesday, justified in a lame manner, exhibits the absence of coherence and planning at a critical moment for Panamanian democracy. On the one hand, the TE alleges that the asylum situation of the former president, convicted of money laundering and currently a fugitive, is a public and notorious fact to justify the participation of his substitute in the presidential debate, and on the other it ignores that the Constitution Nacional prohibits his participation in the contest. The duality of his actions regarding the public and notorious reveals an alarming incongruity in the TE’s behavior. The law admits no doubt: anyone who has been sentenced to more than five years in prison cannot be a presidential candidate, establishing a criterion that should be applied without further delay or hesitation. The incoherence of the TE in taking timely actions based on notoriety in one aspect and ignoring it in another, undermines confidence in the electoral process and denotes a worrying lack of coherence and seriousness in its resolutions.— LA PRENSA, Feb. 19.