2023-06-05 16:37:41
PANAMA, (Xinhua) – Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) won this Sunday the presidential candidacy of his party, Realizando Metas (RM), which held its internships with a view to the general elections of May 2024, while waiting a sentence in the trial for alleged laundering of public funds for the purchase of a media outlet and for implications in the bribery payment scandal of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
The director of the electoral organization of the Electoral Tribunal (TE), Osman López, recognized the virtual triumph of the candidate in a call, and highlighted the achievement of the result in less than two hours through the technological tool TER (Unofficial Transmission of Results). , with more than 75 percent of the polling stations counted.
Meanwhile, the electoral roll of the RM party for these primary elections was 235,700 voters, distributed in 513 voting centers throughout the country, according to official information.
Martinelli, who came to the presidency with the Cambio Democrático (CD) party, which he also founded, denounced this Sunday during the act of this new proclamation that he has been for more than 10 years “victim of the use of judicial power” to end his political career.
According to the ex-president, they are disrespecting his electoral criminal jurisdiction, “which was created for candidates to campaign, and not be persecuted by other politicians, nor for the judicial body to be used for that purpose.”
He stated that, in this sense, he is presumably the target of impeachment, as the only way to ban him from the presidential race.
“The only way to get me out of the presidential race is with the impeachment (…) they are going to have to kill me (…) the laws or procedures are used as a weapon of war and with the sole purpose of disqualifying me as a presidential candidate, through rigged processes », He harangued this same day at the RM headquarters, where he celebrated his long-awaited victory together with hundreds of followers.
Martinelli’s sons, Luis Enrique and Ricardo Martinelli, were sent back to Panama last January after serving a three-year sentence imposed by US justice, accused of laundering millions of dollars in bribes from Odebrecht.
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