JOSÉ RAÚL MULINO TO BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF PANAMA
By Mónica Palm / La Prensa
José Raúl Mulino Quintero, the disciple of the former president convicted for money laundering Ricardo Martinelli, won the presidential elections of this Sunday, May 5, according to the preliminary results transmitted by the electronic system of the Electoral Tribunal (TE).
At 8:44 p.m. this Sunday, May 5, 2024, with 85.73% of the tables counted, Mulino had 34.44% of the valid votes counted. At 8:48 p.m., the magistrates of the TE communicated with Mulino via Zoom, to formally inform him that he was the president-elect.
“I am pleased on behalf of the Electoral Tribunal, to inform you that you are unofficially the winner to the presidency of the Republic… We congratulate you for the effort you and your party have made and we extend you the invitation, at this moment, for a meeting with the full Electoral Tribunal”, said magistrate Alfredo Juncá, president of the TE.
“I assume with great responsibility and humility the position… It is an honor for me, for my family, to receive this call”, responded Mulino, who also promised to give his best in the next five years. Before saying goodbye, he announced that he would go to the TE, to attend the invitation of the magistrates, once he finished delivering the speech he had prepared for his followers.
Mulino is supposed to be at the Sheraton Hotel with his family, while his supporters are gathered in a hall, ready to celebrate.
According to the unofficial count, Mulino is followed by Ricardo Lombana (Movimiento Otro Camino), Martín Torrijos (Partido Popular) and Rómulo Roux (of the Cambio Democrático and Panameñista alliance), with 25.01%, 16.02% and 11.28%, respectively.
Torrijos and Roux, as well as the vice-president of the Republic and presidential candidate of the ruling party, José Gabriel Carrizo, and the congresswoman and candidate for the free nomination, Zulay Rodríguez, recognized Mulino’s eventual triumph.
Mulino, a 64 year-old lawyer (he will turn 65 next month), joined the presidential race last March 4, when the TE disqualified Martinelli due to his 128-month prison sentence for money laundering in the so-called New Business case. Until that day, Mulino was his vice-presidential candidate.
Mulino’s candidacy hung by a thread due to an unconstitutionality lawsuit filed against the TE’s decision to designate him as presidential candidate of the Realizando Metas (RM) and Alianza parties, replacing Martinelli.
Last Friday, May 3, two days before the elections, the Supreme Court of Justice acknowledged that the TE “made a mistake”, but declared that there were no violations to the Constitution, giving a free hand to Mulino’s participation in the electoral tournament.
In the call with the magistrates of the TE, this Sunday night, Mulino referred to the attempts to “boycott” his candidacy, because a “small group” (which he did not identify) did not want to recognize the “popular will”.
Mulino met Martinelli this Sunday morning, when he visited him for coffee at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama, where the former president is awaiting a safe-conduct that will allow him to travel to that country and evade his sentence for money laundering.
On more than one occasion, Mulino has said that he will do everything in his power to “help” Martinelli. He proposes an original constituent assembly, with 51 constituents with the power to change the main officials of the three organs of the State, including the judiciary.
Mulino, who remained the leader in the polls since he replaced Martinelli, was minister of Public Security in that government from 2014 to 2019. Before that, in the administration of Guillermo Endara(1989-1994) he was vice-chancellor.
Once he left the post of Minister of Security, he was investigated for the alleged commission of the crime of embezzlement for irregularities in the purchase of 19 radars to the Italian Selex, a subsidiary of the conglomerate Finmeccanica. For that case, he was detained on October 28, 2015, but thanks to a ruling with the report of magistrate Ángela Russo, his case was annulled with the argument that the then anti-corruption prosecutor Zuleyka Moore had made investigations without having the corresponding judicial authorization.
Mulino has said he would buy back those radars, although it was proven that they did not have the capacity to detect the speedboats used by drug traffickers to move merchandise.
In 2018, he sought the presidential candidacy for the Democratic Change (CD) party, but lost in the primary election to Rómulo Roux, who in this election repeats as CD’s standard bearer.
A lawyer by profession, he is married to Marisel Cohen and is the father of four children.
————
This article was originally published in the newspaper La Prensa, of Panama, with whose authorization we reproduce it here.
