Herrera defeats Varela by 10 points

Balbina, 53, defeated her bitter rival, the mayor of Panama, Juan Carlos Navarro by less than 10 points, while the third runner in the race, Laurentino Cortizo only obtained nine percent of the votes

With her slogan: “From the heart”, Herrera became the first female candidate to the presidency of the governing party, which is the biggest in the country 676,000 members

Herrera, who is also the PRD’s president, obtained 48.7 percent of the votes, to Navarro`s 39.1 percent

The official results were made public at 7:00 p.mon Sunday night when Herrera express her gratitude to her supporters and made a call for unity within the party

She said that Cortizo was like a brother to her, but hardly mentioned his closest contender, NavarroThe candidate appeared to be repeating the words said to her by the former Labor Minister, Mitchel Doens

An hour later, the defeated Juan Carlos Navarro addressed his supporters and conceded defeatHe called on them to get behind Herrera to help her keep the PRD in power

Navarro’s attitude in defeat was commended by political analysts, because he is putting the interests of the party before his own

He had been campaigning for six months and spent millions, but at least he is better known outside the capital city

The political battle for the big prize is just beginning, but now the candidates of the biggest parties have been chosen: Ricardo Martinelli for Democratic Change, Juan Carlos Varela for the Panameñista Party and Balbina Herrera for the PRD

The tantalizing question now is: will the opposition unite or will it continue fighting?