PANAMIANS VOTE IN A TIME OF CHANGING ECONOMIC REALITIES:

A MILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN SCORES BIG WIN

by Mark Scheinbaum, HubPages and the American Reporter

(UPDATED WITH RESULTS)

MODERATE MILLIONAIRE MARTINELLI SWEEPS PANAMA VOTE
by Mark Scheinbaum

American Reporter Correspondent

(3 MAY, 2009)--Bucking a left-wing Latin American election trend, moderate supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli, 57 scored a huge victory in Panama Sunday to win a six-year term as President of the Central American Republic.

( 4 May)--With  more than 90 per cent of the vote counted this morning, elections officials reported a landslide  Martinelli  win with more than 60% of the vote over populist former Manuel Noriega ward healer Balbina Herrera with 37%).

A woman was injured it what police thought might be a gang related shooting around a polling place in the city of Colon, but international observers and police reported a smooth election day even in remote indigenous homelands called "Comarcas" which in past elections were sometimes slow to report and reporting with "irregularities." The observers from the Organization of American States reported 25 minor incidents, but declared the election fair and successful as to electoral and voting procedures.

Banned booze sales and heightened securities greeted Panamanian voters Sunday as a frantic and factious three year presidential campaign finally went to the voters. Businessman Martinelli, was the odds on favorite to replace Martin Torrijos despite a dismal previous effort six years ago when he managed only about 5 per cent of the votes. Panama law allows only one six-year presidential term.

Some Electoral Tribunal officials estimated that 70-80 per cent of the 2.3 million registered voters in this Central American nation of 3.4 million might show up at the polls. Under federal law alcohol sales were banned starting yesterday, and three days ago the Tribunal assumed technical control of the 16,000 national and local policemen (Panama has no Army) for the duration of the election.

Traditional parties in Panama have fallen by the wayside (but still lurk in the background) after an expensive and sometimes ugly primary season, in favor of broad coalitions of old political names and cronies. What evolved was Martinelli's "Alliance for Change" party and self-appointed friend of the urban and rural poor, and former Manuel Noriega precinct worker Balbina Herrrera's "One Party for All" ticket. Herrera, 55, an agronomist and well-known ward healer, was once the front runner, but scandals and mud-slinging related to Colombian David Murcia--a Panama version of Bernie Madoff--have knocked down her poll ratings.

Recent polls show Martinelli with as much as a 9 point lead, followed by Herrera, and former president and elder statesman Guillermo Endara, 73, ("Party for the Vanguard of National Morality") leading a distant group of minor party candidates.

The polls opened at 7 a.m. and voting continues until 4 p.m. with first results expected around 9 p.m. this evening. More than 750 local reporters and 150 accredited foreign journalists are registered withe the Tribunal to cover the election for president, vice president, 71 national and Central American deputies, 75 mayors, 623 neighborhood representatives and seven special council positions.

Today marks the fourth national election since the U.S.-aided ouster of the Noriega administration by military intervention in 1989. It is also probably the most expensive and most USA-style multi-media campaign ever, including slick web sites, TV, cable, and satellite ads, and use of many foreign campaign managers and consultants.

An observer might note that what had seemed like an early Herrera slam dunk in an environment of real estate boom, international investments, Panama Canal expansion, and billions of dollars in infrastructure and transport improvements, fell victim to global economic realities. At one early campaign speech nearly two years ago at the posh Union Club "Balbina" charmed the wealthy business leaders from prominent families. She worked the crowd in designer eyeglass frames, impeccable make-up, a smile and a strong personal handshake. Her message was the that legacy of the ruling PRD party of Torrijos (and the legacy of his revered late father Gen. Omar Torrijos) would be continued in her administration.

With dark complexion, earthy charm, and photo campaigns in the poorest hamlets and urban neighborhoods she scored media points as the supposed friend of the little guy, and hero of the working people. Unfortunately, she also had advisors who hammered the theme that the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and global fallout did not really impact little panama. Her political cronies supposedly made Panama immune to worldwide recession.

But slowly as recession headlines spread the multi-millionaire Martinelli did what used to be political suicide in Panama: he started to tear away the gift wrap of rhetoric and sounded some economic alarms.

Already from a well-to-do family, he passed up the traditional training grounds of Tulane, Texas A&M, or even Ivy League schools for the University of Arkansas. As a business student he took the opportunity to learn more, do some practicums, and even work part-time and fulltime at Sam Walton's upstart Wal-Mart stores.

Returning to Panama one long-time writer and political strategist said privately, 'Martinelli became probably one of the first national leaders to earn his MBA not from one of the old-name local, Spanish, or Latin American institutions, but from the newer Harvard University affiliate here in Panama. This was no rubber-stamp degree, this was some excellent hands-on business expertise."

SUPER 99 HIS SPRINGBOARD

With his academic and job experience and the help of his family he launched a super-slick local supermarket called Super 99 which quickly grew into (depending on whose statistics you use) the first or second largest supermarket chain in Panama. From upscale neighborhoods with huge wine and liquor sections, gourmet delis and even strictly kosher food sections, expansion went to outlying provinces and working class neighborhoods. Using distribution centers in Miami and elsewhere in the Americas Martinelli used mass buying power a la Wal-Mart to revolutionize shopping habits. Two other national chains, Rey Supermarkets (founded by a Greek-American from Brooklyn married to a Panamanian) and the oldest and most entrenched favorite Riba Smith, started to look more like Super 99 than vice versa.

But it was the economy that alarmed Martinelli. In one brief period last year he sounded two controversial alarms:

--Panama would not escape the real estate doldrums, developer defaults, and abandoned luxury projects, and

--The basket case "second city" of Colon separated by razor wire from the financial miracle and boom town of the Free Trade Zone (the world's second largest after Hong Kong) could no longer be ignored. He articulated plans for wealthy export-import interests on the other side of the fence to contribute more in taxes and manpower to fight drugs, crime, filth, and settle frequent labor strife in the city of Colon. The central government couldn't do it alone.

Ironically, some of Herrera's over the top optimism, might have been correct. This week Standard & Poor's estimated that only three nation's in the Western Hemisphere, Panama, Chile, and Peru will report real net growth for 2009. Albeit a tiny 1.3-2.5 per cent growth range, in the case of Panama the continuing public works projects and Canal expansion should keep unemployment somewhat in check, and even a smaller construction industry will at least chug along for the next two years.

Both the new presidential term, and the scheduled completion of the Canal expansion wind up in 2014.