opinion

Balbina Herrera’s head start
by Silvio Sirias

It’s difficult to overlook the power this continent’s youth has exercised in recent presidential elections. Much is being said and written about the advantage Barack Obama had over John McCain with regard to his remarkable ability to capture the youth vote --- an advantage that paid off handsomely in a landslide victory.

Courting young voters also paid off two years ago for Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. His campaign was designed to appeal to a significantly large portion of the electorate --- Nicaragua’s voting age is sixteen --- who were infants, or yet to be born, when Violeta Chamorro’s 1990 victory brought the Sandinista Revolution to an end.

For Nicaragua’s youth, who had scant memories of what life was like during that era, the stories their elders told them about Ortega’s previous reign seemed more akin to fables about the Big Bad Wolf; and the harsh national economic realities, coupled with the blatant corruption of Arnoldo Aleman’s government, made Daniel’s return actually seem desirable. Thus, thanks to young voters, the leader of the Sandinista Party, in a three-way race, obtained 38 percent of the ballots, just over the 35 percent needed to win the election. (Ironically, many of the youth who voted the former Comandante back into power are now his most vocal critics.)

In the Republic of Panama, Balbina Herrera, presidential candidate for the ruling party, the Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD), is directing the heart of her campaign to the nation’s younger voters. Throughout Panama City, a series of large ads and billboards supporting Herrera’s candidacy have suddenly sprung up, and seemingly everywhere. What’s interesting to note is that the ads are not the traditional candidate mug-shot. Instead, attractive children, teenagers, and young adults smile blissfully --- often in a models’ poses --- while the legends of the announcements proclaim that their lives will have far greater educational and employment opportunities with Balbina as president. In one ad, the candidate stands up front and center while at her side and behind her are a couple dozen beaming faces, all of voting age and not one over twenty-five.

Thirty percent of Panama’s electorate is under the age of twenty-five. What’s more, the ads promising better education include children of elementary school age, a clear indication that Balbina is also reaching out to young parents. In sum, then, she’s aggressively going after the thirty-five and under vote, which constitutes close to fifty percent of Panama’s voters.

Balbina’s “De Corazón” --- From the Heart --- campaign motif is counting on the certainty that the youth are quick to hope, and hope is what she offers in the highly attractive ads: ads that contain no traces of her once-close association with General Manuel Antonio Noriega, Panama’s former dictator. The campaign’s publicity looks single-mindedly toward the future. Still, subtle hints of Latin America’s historical paternalism are in evidence: ask what the government will do for you, and you shall receive. But in offering to help every Panamanian achieve his or her dreams, Balbina makes the campaign not about herself, but about the common voters’ desire for a better life.

Ricardo Martinelli, of Cambio Democratico, and Juan Carlos Varela, of the Panameñista Party—the two opposition candidates of significance --- in addition to battling against one another, are doggedly sticking to the traditional mug-shot ads. Ricardo Martinelli’s face, in particular, is on billboards near every Super 99 --- the large chain of supermarkets he owns --- and many Panamanians are beginning to express their annoyance of having to stare at the insipid and huge photograph of his face for another five months.

Clearly, Martinelli’s and Varela’s campaigns are lagging far behind Balbina Herrera’s --- both in imagination and in effectively targeting the crucial segment of the youth vote. And, as often happens in elections, unless they come up with equally effective ads, and within the next few weeks, the upcoming Panamanian presidential election will essentially be over because they will not be able to catch up to Balbina Herrera’s formidable head start.

Silvio Sirias is an award-winning novelist who lives and writes in Panama. For more information, visit his website at http://www.silviosirias.com