On the campaign trail

• The numbers, according to a Dichter & Neira poll commissioned and published on September 15 by La Prensa: Martín Torrijos, 42.5 percent; Guillermo Endara 28.2; José Miguel Alemán 9.6, Ricardo Martinelli 3.0. Dichter & Neira is the Latin American affiliate of the Harris polling organization and generally does the most accurate surveys of Panamanian public opinion. Of course, much can happen between now and next May. The cover graphic of the Pulso de la Nacion supplement in which the poll results are published, which can be seen on La Prensa’s website, is a classic by cartoonist Víctor Ramos --- it portrays Mireya Moscoso as a zombie trying to drag José Miguel Alemán into Arnulfismo’s grave with her.

• Martín Torrijos says he’s “tired” of Arnulfista candidate José Miguel Alemán’s repeated allegations that Torrijos was somehow involved in the alleged bribery of legislators to gain approval of the CEMIS airport expansion and container handling development. “I had nothing to do with the affair, and if he has proof he should file a complaint with the Public Ministry,” Torrijos complained. A lot of good that would do, as Attorney General Sossa is allied with the PRD and tends to wear his partisan biases on his sleeve, but nevertheless Alemán has not come forward with any proofs, solid or otherwise, of direct wrongdoing by Torrijos. The PRD candidate might be vulnerable to charges that as party leader he took a lax attitude about this or other scandals involving members of his party, but it would be hard for anyone from the Moscoso administration make such an accusation stick.

• Ricardo Martinelli, who served as director of the Social Security Fund for part of the Pérez Balladares administration, has challenged his opponents to sign a pact promising to make the necessary changes to save the fund within the first 100 days of the next administration. He criticized the Moscoso administration's business-labor-government dialogues as unproductive time-wasters. He didn't say what he would do to save Seguro Social.

• It’s official. The Arnulfista Party, MOLIRENA and the National Liberal Party have formally allied themselves for the 2004 elections. Strike up the band --- maybe with that old Harry Chapin tune, “There’s a dance band on the Titanic.”

• José Miguel Alemán has criticized Guillermo Endara for his failure to take an oath not to privatize Social Security. Endara says that his record with respect to Social Security is a matter of public record, he’s not going to privatize it and he thinks it’s unseemly to invoke the name of God in campaign promises. Besides, the once and possible future president argues, Alemán has pledged to continue Mireya Moscoso’s policies and one of those policies has been to break her campaign promises.

• Eight activists for the Partido Popular were arrested while using a government vehicle on a campaign swing through the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca. Their campaign material was confiscated and they were officially interrogated by the Electoral Prosecutor’s office. Party president Rubén Arosemena lamented the illegal use of a state vehicle, but called it a youthful mistake.

• Ricardo Martinelli says that he doesn’t believe in polls. People who are running fourth in a four-way race with three percent of those surveyed expressing their support generally tend to say such things.

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On the campaign trail

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On the campaign trail