Panama City/Prensa Latina
Looking ahead to the general elections next May, the Electoral Tribunal (TE) confirmed this Sunday, March 10, the disqualification of former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), currently the presidential candidate of Realizing Goals and Alliance.
The former ruler, asylum since February 7 in the Nicaraguan embassy in this capital, is sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for money laundering in the New Business case, referring to the irregular purchase in 2010 of the publisher Panamá América. . SA
The magistrates specified that it is officially announced that his until then running mate and former Minister of Security during his mandate, José Raúl Mulino, will appear on the ballot as a candidate for the presidential seat.
The decision also disqualifies Martinelli as a candidate for deputy for the capital circuit 8-4 and for that position he will be replaced by lawyer Alejandro Pérez, who, like Mulino, will not have a substitute.
The TE also ruled that all political propaganda in which Martinelli appears as a candidate for the Presidency and as a deputy of the National Assembly (parliament) must be changed.
This latest agreement comes after on March 7, legal representatives of the former president filed an appeal for reconsideration before the TE against the body’s decision to disqualify him from participating in the consultation in just under two months.
Also on March 9, Judge Baloisa Marquínez denied a request for release bail for Martinelli, against whom she issued a new arrest warrant.
Martinelli’s disqualification is based on article 180 of the Constitution, which establishes that a person with convictions for intentional crimes that carry a sentence of more than five years in prison cannot be elected President of the Republic.
Next November, the billionaire must go to trial again for handling bribes with the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, like his two sons Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto, who have already served prison in the United States for the same crime.
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