Bosco’s deputy will be mayor

PANAMA. Roxana Mendez, Bosco Vallarino’s deputy mayor from the May 3 election’s winning ticket, will receive the Panama City mayoralty credentials this Friday.

The decision was taken unanimously as Mrs Mendez’s eligibility has not been challenged (as Bosco’s has), said Erasmo Pinilla, head of the Electoral Tribunal (TE).

On making a final decision on Vallarino’s eligibility to run or not for office in Panama due to his dual citizenship, Pinilla said the process has been slowed down by the defense and not by the authorities.

The Electoral Tribunal reiterated the need for Vallarino to turn in the passport he uses to ascertain which citizenship he claims to have while travelling.

Despite the TE announcement, Vallarino sympathizers started a round of protests in hopes of putting pressure on the tribunal to decide on the Bosco case.

One of the protests was held Tuesday outside the University of Panama dome in Curundu, where credentials were handed out to the new lawmakers. It was a peaceful protest, with a line of men and women standing with signs that read “160,000 voted for Bosco, Bosco is the mayor, credentials for Bosco.”

Meanwhile, inside the dome Pinilla alongside the other magistrates said he had decided to give credentials to Mendez.

With this decision, Mendez would take the role of Panama City’s Mayor starting July 1 instead of Bosco Vallarino, the mayor-elect.

The announcement soon generated criticism, as lawyer Armando Aguilar said: “the magistrates’ decision to give credentials to Roxana Mendez, is a wrong palliative, this never should have happened, plus it doesn’t have any legal backing.”

Aguilar called for a new election for Panama City’s mayoralty office if the Tribunal rules against Bosco.

For Mario Castillo of The Movement for Reformist Action, said: “Giving credentials to Mendez is an interim solution.”

Castillo believes Mendez cannot occupy the Mayor’s office because her appointment is subject to the final ruling in the Bosco case.

Pedro Fuentes, constitutionalist, is in favor of Mendez occupying the Mayor’s office. He said: “The impugnation is against Bosco, not against his deputy officer? The problem I see is that I do not know why the TE has still not solved the Bosco case.”

Yet not everyone agrees. Roberto Velasquez father, who was at the front of his son Roberto “Bobby” Velasquez’s run for mayor, said he hoped “the decision of the magistrates is tied to the law and is not a political matter.”

For his part, he said: “I think new elections should be called, but I leave everything in the hands of justice.”

With Mendez as Panama City’s mayor, the official party Cambio Democratico controls the most important mayoralty in the country, which manages the biggest projects, the largest payroll, and with an annual budget of over $90 million.