A second round punch up in ruling alliance

By Yasser Williams Arosemena*

There has been a great buzz in Panama within the past few weeks about "the second round."

 No, not the shocking loss that Roberto “Manos de Piedra” (Hands of Stone)Duran suffered against Thomas “Hitman” Hearns in June, 1984.

I am referring to a “quarrel” taking place 27 years later between the ruling party Cambio Democrático (CD) and its ally, Partido Panameñista, which has led to much speculation regarding the strength of the political alliance that allowed CD to defeat PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democrático).

Cambio Democratico proposed to approve changes to the Panamanian voting system, by which the second round would be included.  Usually, any proposal made by the reigning party had received the endorsement of the Partido Panameñista… but not this time.

Historically, the two – round system has existed since the XIX century and it is used in several countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, France,  Finland, Romania, etc.

The “ballotage” or “runoff voting” is very popular, since its principle is quite simple and looks for a larger consensus among the voters in order to elect a president.  Simply, if there is an election in which none of the candidates obtains more than 50% of the votes, the two that received more votes enter a second round. Whoever wins the second round becomes president.

During the presidential elections that took place before 2009, the control of the government had been distributed equally between the PRD (Ernesto Pérez Balladares, 1994-1999; Martín Torrijos Espino, 2004-2009) and Partido Panameñista (Guillermo Endara Galimany, 1990-1994; Mireya Moscoso, 1999-2004). With the elections of 2009, the popularity of Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal shifted the power scale and allowed Cambio Democrático to become one of the two largest political parties in Panama, obtaining more seats in the National Assembly as well as members.

What happened could be compared to the long battle between the tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the only two that shared the first position in the ATP ranking for 7 years….until Novak Djokovic started an unprecedented winning streak that ended the supremacy of the former two.  

 With a weakened party, the Partido Panameñista might have to give up its wishes of having someone from their “ranks” become the next president of Panama and negotiate with one of the largest two if they want to continue having any power in government, since the two-round system forces the weaker parties to form alliances in order to survive or have an important role in the government.

Now, with a new president of the National Assembly from CD, I can not help but wonder what will happen with the second round and the alliance formed between CD and Partido Panameñista.

*Yasser (Alexis) Williams Arosemena is a lawyer practising in Panama . He can be reached at awilliamsaroslaw.com