Electoral tribunal puts crimp in Martinelli expansion plan

For the second time Panama’s Electoral Tribunal has ruled against the merger between the Molirena Party (Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement) and the governing CD (Democratic Change). 

The decision puts a crimp in President Martinelli’s plans to create a monolithic group whose numbers would be difficult to challenge. Martinelli founded and funded  the CD  and rules it with what many commentators consider an authoritarian hand.

Molirena, which played an active role in confronting the dictatorship prior to the US invasion remains  wounded but politically  alive  The presiding judge of the TE, Gerardo Solis, said the merger was denied because at the  Molirena convention on October 2, it did not achieve  the two thirds  required vote in favor.  

In that vote, 413  were in favor and 190 against.. There were six spoiled ballots. According to the statutes of Molirena, 428 votes were required to approve the merger.

Molirena president, Sergio Gonzalez Ruiz, said he will abide by the decision of the TE, but the party will remain in the governing alliance with CD.

Gonzalez Ruiz said that he will still  head the party because “it is clear that we control when we got over 400 votes in favor of the merger. We cannot leave the party in the hands of a minority," he said.

Arturo Gonzalez Baso, Molirena legal representative, said he is considering  taking  the case to the Supreme Court.

Jorge Alberto Rosas, a  the only Molirena  deputy to oppose the merger and said that for "honor”, Gonzalez should resign “because the party cannot be led by someone who wanted to deliver a trophy to the  CD".

The TE  previously rejected the merger  in  August because the vote was secret.