Mayor struggles to stem recall tide

While Panama’s mayor, José Luis Fábrega, claims that he is not worried about the movement to remove him from office his actions in the Electoral Tribunal (TE) and the Supreme Court speak louder.

In a new request submitted to the TE, he asks that his “activists” be present at the points where they are collecting signatures reports La Prensa. Fábrega wants them to act as  “watchdogs”. 

Support rallies
On Tuesday, April 26 in Porras Park, at 4:00 pm, supporters of the mayor are planning a rally against the recall. The next day, the Association of Municipalities of Panama will hold a march “in defense of the municipal system” from Plaza 5 de Mayo to the headquarters of the Electoral Tribunal, starting at 4:00 p.m.

In a  brief, presented on April 8 by the lawyer Juan Carlos Pérez, from the mayor’s legal team, he also asks about the forms of verification of the people who sign the petition.

Although the TE hasn’t given an official response to the request, the position of the Tribunal has already been supported by the National Directorate when Fábrega, appealed the decision in the first instance of giving the green light to the revocation process.

Desperate measures
Roberto Ruiz Díaz, the proponent of the recall process, said that these are “desperate measures” since the referendum stage is not yet in progress.

At least 198,920 signatures must be collected in 120 days for the TE to call a recall referendum. The signature collection process began on April 20; there are already more than 10,000.

On Friday, the TE announced that the progress reports on the collection of signatures will be published every Monday, starting on April 25,

If 198,920 signatures are achieved and once they are validated, the TE will have to announce and organize the referendum in a period not exceeding three months.

Fábrega was elected in 2019 as the standard-bearer of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), along with his running mate Judy Meana (from Molirena), with a total of 173,289 votes.

Since the beginning of his administration, Fábrega has been involved in controversy from his attempt to build a beach in the Bay of Panama, to the defense of the mobilization expenses of the municipal authorities and the construction of a new multi-million-dollar Seafood Market.

On April 12, Fabrega filed a claim of unconstitutionality before the Supreme Court against the resolution, which admitted the request for revocation. The central argument is that in the case of local authorities, the Constitution only establishes the revocation of the mandate of the corregimiento representatives, but not of the mayors.