Martinelli has lost credibility Panama poll

Panama’s political crisis which has now spread to the business sector, continues with the latest poll revealing  that The President, Ricardo Martinelli, has lost credibility with the Panamanian population.

In a survey prepared for La Prensa by the polling firm Unimer , 74.8% of respondents said they did not believe what the president said when referring to the bribery investigation being conducted by the Naples Prosecutor into the Italian Valter Lavítola, representative in Panama of the Finmeccanica consortium

Only 15.1% of the population say they believe the president, who has repeatedly said that the information emanating from the Italian judicial authorities, and disclosed by international media – is a "soap opera".

Men and people of higher socioeconomic level are those most inclined to believe the president.

The survey was conducted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday May8 -11 to 629 people by telephone.

The same study found that 22.1% of the population believes that Martinelli should resign as a result of this corruption scandal, and 19.2% think it Security Minister, Jose Raul Mulino should step down. The resignations of other government insiders were also called for

Meanwhile, the resignation of Vice President, Juan Carlos Varela (Martinelli called for publicly by President Martinelli was rejected by 75.2% of respondents.