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Volume
14, Number 8 |
Also in
this section:
Free
postulation candidates
The electoral legislation in Panama is ever more anti-democratic. And if we should understand "democracy" to mean citizen participation, the Electoral Tribunal, with the help of the principal parties' leadership, has made this difficult to the maximum degree with the requisites for free postulation. In effect, the obstacles in the Electoral Code have turned free postulation into a mirage. Let's look at some of the so-called "requisites" for independent candidates: 1. Article 260 of the Electoral Code, in its sections 1 and d, provides that to seek free postulation it's necessary to present, first, the application for postulation accompanied by a number of citizen "promoters" and, afterwards, obtain a number of adherents to the candidacy. These requisites establish, respectively, quantities equivalent to 10 percent of the total adherents necessary for the candidacy and four percent of the total valid votes cast in the last election for said position. 2. The citizen "promoters" of the candidacy and the "adherents" will have to appear in the district or circuit's preliminary voter roll and can't be registered in political parties. 3. The petitioners must personally sign before the district registrars. For this they must solicit sign-up books from the Electoral Tribunal 15 days in advance, and the tribunal will decide if they agree with this, and the books will not be mobile. 4. Every book will have to be accompanied by a functionary from the Electoral Tribunal, who must be transported to and from the Electoral Tribunal's offices at the expense of the candidate, who must also provide three meals to the official. 5. The activists of the independent candidate who will accompany the adherent registration books will have to have taken a special course that the Electoral Tribunal gives and wear a badge that it will provide. 6. Having obtained the required number of signers, the books will be reviewed by the Electoral Tribunal, which will determine if each and every one of the signatures meet the requirements. In the event that any signature of a citizen who is a member of a political party is found, this can by the motive to annul the whole petition. 7. If they consider the applicant qualified, then, and only then, the Tribunal will authorize the collection of adherents' signatures, of which there must be four percent of the total votes in the last election for the position to which she or he aspires. 8. Afterwards the Electoral Tribunal opens a period during which any person may impugn the candidacy. If there is an impugnment then the Tribunal must undertake to examine that appeal. As you may appreciate, to be a free postulation candidate in Panama implies being something of a Saladino to jump over the obstacles. Also in this section: Editorial, Self-proclaimed terrorists are the least of our problems Bernal, Independent candidates Gandásegui, The economic crisis and the Panama Canal Leis, Education and democracy Avnery, Manifest Destiny? Committee to Protect Journalists, Iraqi photojournalist released after two years Pilgrim, Housing problems in the Caribbean Powdar, Colombia spreads insecurity around Green, Colombia's most fateful assassination Weisbrot, An isolated Bush cries "terrorism" McGillion & Morley, Washington blind to changes in Cuba Lerner, Obama's error Jackson, Cracks in the stone wall Letters to the editor News
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©
2008 by Eric Jackson email: editor@thepanamanews.com or phone: (507) 6-632-6343 Mailing
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