POLITICS

More scandals haunt politicos

03-24-2009 | STAFF

Government party candidates from neighborhood representatives to mayor and presidential hopefuls have been linked to laundering

Panama Star PANAMA. Scandals appear to be following the candidates of the Democratic Revolutionary Party PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democratico).

First came the allegations of the Colombian David Murcia, who says that he gave a total of $6 million to the electoral campaigns of the presidential candidate Balbina Herrera and the mayor’s office hopeful, Roberto “Bobby” Velasquez.

Now, Ancon neighborhood representative and legislator candidate, Joaquin Vásquez has been accused of using funds from Ancon’s Communal Board to write checks in favor of pre-candidates for neighborhood representatives, who were coincidentally supporting the candidacy of Vasquez.

There were at least 12 checks signed by Vasquez and all the beneficiaries were candidates to become neighborhood representative, who voted for him As a result he won the nomination as legislator candidate during the PRD primaries.

Vasquez denied any knowledge of the checks and said that “these allegations are just attacks from my rivals.”

Meanwhile the Civics and Ethics Committee president, Luis H. Moreno said that the constant accusations between candidates, the allegations of people connected to money laundering and the checks that supposedly were written in favor of representatives candidates during the primaries have left a bad taste in the mouths of the public.

Ricardo Panay, the general advisor to Bakbina Herrera’s campaign team, said that the allegations against Vasquez must be investigated as well as any other accusations regardless of which party it affects.

The organizations in charge of the enquiries, the Electoral Tribunal TE (Tribunal Electoral) and the Public Ministry are continuing investigating Murcia´s allegations.

TE Justice Gerardo Solis said that although accusations have been made against Herrera and Velasquez for accepting money for their campaign from a fraudster and the Democratic Change CD (Cambio Democratico) Ricardo Martinelli was accused by Herrera of money laundering, both can continue with their campaign, unless they decide to retire from the race altogether, leaving the path free for Juan Carlos Navarro and Juan Carlos Varela.

The other option is for both parties to select other candidates to run. There is no legal argument to stop either of them from becoming president, said Solis.