Navarro calls for alliance to defeat CD

AMID growing fears of a CD electoral coup  PRD presidential candidate Juan Carlos Navarro, has publicly requested a meeting with Panameñista candidate, Juan Carlos Varela, to form an alliance ahead of the May 2014 elections.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes," said Navarro according to a La Prensa report

Fears  of behind the scenes "dirty tricks" have been fueled by a recent Supreme Court ruling negating an Electoral Tribunal decision, a move that has been declared unconstitutional by the College of Attorneys and constitutional experts.
There is a general perception that the executive holds sway over the supreme court stacked with judges appointed by President Ricardo Martinelli and that if the CD candidate Arias should win the election, he would be controlled by Martinelli, founder and leader of the CD.
Earlier CD legislators had posited a move to change the constitution and have Martinelli run for a second consecutive term.
Navarro’s fellow party member and former president of the PRD Francisco Sanchez Cardenas said that they felt like Varela Navarro both should sit down and negotiate to achieve consensus by supporting a third candidate.
Sanchez Cardenas believes, however, that the PRD, as the group more representative of the country, should be the leader of this electoral formula.
Of this possibility, Juan Carlos Navarro himself must first be noted that conduct meetings between the two parties and then discuss the specifications.
In the last elections Juan Carlos Varela was talked into a deal with Martinelli that allegedly would have had him running for president with the support of the CD in the upcoming election, but Martinelli soon reneged on the arrangement and said that only the CD party could make that decision. Ultimately the CD-Panameñista coalition fell apart and numerous opposition deputies were coerced into jumping ship to ensure a CD majority in the Assembly. At the time accusations were circulating of “bags of money” changing hands.