Bosco is still in deep water

PANAMA. The decision of the National Assembly to restore the citizen’s rights of mayor-elect, Bosco Ricardo Vallarino has created major controversy between those supporting him and the ones who advocate new mayoralty elections.

The resolution restoring citizen’s rights to Vallarino from the year 2000 on the grounds that the Suarez Convention said a person can recover his citizenship after living in his country of origin for two years, will give more support to his case before the Electoral Tribunal (ET).

Yesterday, Vallarino accompanied by his lawyer presented the resolution to the ET and said: “This is a resolution that recognizes that I comply with law 24 and the Suarez Convention. I presented the documentation to the electoral judges so they can make a decision.”

The mayor-elect said that he is hopeful that soon he will be able to serve the people who elected him.

Vallarino also requested that the petition requesting his removal from the mayor’s office must be set aside and the credentials should be given to him as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the former Electoral Tribunal judge, Guillermo Marquez Amado said that the legislators could not make the resolution effective retroactively.

The former mayoralty candidate and one of the persons who requested that Vallarino should be declared unfit to be mayor, Dr. Miguel Antonio Bernal said that the legislators’ actions were a legal “mess up”. “The legislators voted in favor of a simple resolution that does not have legal worth,” said Bernal.

The lawyer added that the legislators had done something that not even the military dictatorship dared to do, when the then Minister of Government and Justice, Adolfo Ahumada, was proved to be a Colombian citizen.

The ET president, Judge, Erasmo Pinilla said that once they receive the notification from the National Assembly about the resolution, then a decision could be made.

Pinilla added that the current mayor, Roxana Mendez will continue at the head of the Panama district until further notice or at the time when the tribunal decides if it is going to give the credentials to Vallarino or not.

The controversy is still alive over the question if the Electoral Tribunal violated the National Constitutions when it allowed Vallarino to run.