Sunday’s presidential election in Panama is ‘most important’ in decades, say experts

Panama, the Central American nation at the crossroads of international trade and migration, will elect a new president on Sunday after a campaign season mired in legal uncertainty.

Panama, the Central American nation at the crossroads of international trade and migration, will elect a new president on Sunday after a campaign season mired in legal uncertainty. “It’s a very important election, the most important since after the US invasion” in 1989, said Daniel Zovatto, a global fellow with the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center, a think tank. “The situation is very complex and the next president, whoever is elected, is going to have an agenda overloaded with problems in a country that is very polarized and undergoing a lot of political tension and uncertainty,” he added. At stake is the financial stewardship of a country of 4.4 million people, which is facing high inflation and a stagnating economy that has led to widespread unease. Water access will also factor high into voter’s minds, analysts say: droughts exacerbated by El Nino have made access to potable water scarce in some regions and reduced the capacity of the Panama Canal, a centerpiece of the country’s GDP. Once a GDP leader in the region, Panama’s economy has slowed dramatically in recent years, with the IMF forecasting GDP growth of only 2.5 percent this year, down from 7.3 percent last year. In March, credit agency Fitch downgraded Panama’s rating to junk status citing “fiscal and governance challenges” that followed a controversial decision to close the country’s largest mine last year. Among the favorites, José Raúl Mulino, a rightwing former public security minister, has pledged to return the country to its economic heyday and to tackle high unemployment with a plan to incentivize private hiring with government funds.