Panama Politics 101: The Parties
{mosgooglecenter}
Politics in Panama can be highly confusing to outisders. I’m still just learning my way through the variety of parties, their nicknames, their former names and what the heck is Left vs. Right. Here’s a primer on the backgrounds of the major parties in Panama today.
The Democratic Revolutionary Party “PRD” (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Democrático, or PRD) was founded in 1979 by Omar Torrijos, and is generally described as a party of the centre-left of the political spectrum.
This party was associated since its creation with the military regime that ruled Panama since the military coup of 1968. With the death of Omar Torrijos, the situation in the country deteriorated under the rule of Manuel Noriega until the U.S. military invasion in December 20, 1989.
Since democracy was restored, the PRD has shown a great deal of organization skills and is the biggest political party of the country. The party has had to carry the stigma of being the party created by the military regime, but has become a truly democratic party by holding primaries for all its candidates, a strategy not followed at first by its opponents, but that helped a great deal on the party’s largest electoral victory on 2004. Since then, its opponents have been following these primary strategies as well.
In the 2004 general election, Martín Torrijos won the presidency with 47.4 percent of the vote, running as the candidate for the Patria Nueva (”New Fatherland”) electoral alliance between the PRD and the smaller People’s Party (PP). In the same election the party won 37.8 percent of the popular vote and 41 out of 78 seats in the National Assembly of Panama.
The PRD won the first post-invasion democratic elections in 1994, when the winner was Ernesto Pérez Balladares González Revilla.
The Panameñista Party “PPA” (Spanish: Partido Panameñista) is a Panama’s second oldest political party, founded in 1932 by Harmodio Arias as the National Revolutionary Party. Its membership largely came from a nationalist organization that opposed American influence in Panama.
The party was dominated by Arnulfo Arias, 3-time president of Panama and deposed by the military each time. After his third ouster, in 1968, a small dissident group broke with Arias to support the military regime of Omar Torrijos. In return, the Torrijos regime allowed the dissidents to take over the party’s registration. The main body, however, remained with Arias and renamed itself the Authentic Panameñista Party. Known by its Spanish acronym, “PPA,” it was one of the leading opponents to Manuel Noriega.
Arias was to have been the party’s candidate for president in 1989, but he died in 1988. He was succeeded as party leader by his widow, Mireya Moscoso. For the 1989 elections, the party was the main component of an anti-Noriega coalition, with the PPA’s Guillermo Endara as the coalition’s presidential candidate. He won by a 3-to-1 margin over Noriega’s stand-in, but those elections were nullified by Noriega. Noriega was overthrown a few months later, and Endara took over as president.
In 1990, the party was renamed the Arnulfista Party in its longtime leader’s honor; though party members had been called “Arnulfistas” for many years. It was the main opposition party to the PRD administration of Ernesto Pérez Balladares, regaining the presidency in 1999 under Moscoso. Recently, the Arnulfistas joined The International Democratic Union, which includes parties that are of the center right.
Democratic Change “CD” (Cambio Democrático) is a political party in Panama. At the last legislative elections, May 2 2004, the party won 7.4 % of the popular vote and 3 out of 78 seats.
The party was founded on May 20, 1998. Its leader is Ricardo Martinelli. They have more than 90,000 members according to the information provided by The Electoral Court (Tribunal Electoral). It is the political party with fastest growth in the last 6 months. Martinelli is currently campaigning for president with the slogan “caminando en los zapatos del pueblo” or, walking in the shoes of the village.
