Citizens can object in writing to electoral judge candidates

Panama’s Citizens' Assembly have achieved a step towards opening up the process of appointing a successor to replace the outgoing judge who heads the Electoral Tribunal (TE), Gerardo Solis.

The organization has welcomed the initiative of the Supreme Court  to enable civil society to raise, in writing, their objections or opinions about the candidates.

Carlos Lee, president of the Assembly, said that next week representatives of its member organizations, after agreeing a position on each of the applicants, will make a submission to the Secretary of the Court.
He said that opening a compass for society to issue comments, is a positive step but added that ideally participation in face to face interviews would be preferable.
According to information released by the Supreme Court, all who wish to comment on any candidate will have to submit a letter to the secretary of the institution, stating his identity card number.
The deadline for submission starts Monday September 3 and ends at 5:00 pm on Friday September 14.
The Court also said that interviews with the 47 candidates will be made between September 17 26 of this month, with the exception of 21, 22 and 23.
The order of the interviews is defined by the date on which the applicants submitted their documents.