Panama: Finally, the Winner

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A full 18 days after Panamanians had gone to the polls to choose a new President, Opposition Candidate Arnulfo Arias, 67, was last week finally declared the winner. The government insisted that the long count was necessary in order to ensure a fair tabulation of the votes and give election-day passions in the volatile nation a chance to cool down. Arias supporters charged that President Marco Aurelio Robles was really only buying time so that the ballot boxes could be stuffed in favor of his government candidate, former Finance Minister David Samudio, 58.

There was probably some truth in the contentions of both sides. Ballot boxes from more than 200 of the country's 1,389 precincts either vanished or were so obviously tampered with that they were nullified by the neutral National Election Board. Whatever the irregularities, Arias won by so commanding a margin—with 175,432 votes to Samudio's 133,887—that the outcome could hardly have been altered by the shenanigans of either side.

When he takes office on Oct. 1, Arias' first task will be to cement relations with Panama's 4,000-man National Guard. Though it promised to support the winner, the guard—along with Arias' political enemies—has booted him from power twice in the past, in 1942 and 1951. The first time around, Arias was evicted for writing a tough, totalitarian-style constitution that threatened to turn Panama into a fascist state. Eighteen months into his second presidency, he was toppled again for organizing his own secret police and once again trying to install his totalitarian constitution. Though as glib and charismatic as ever, Arias claims that times have changed and he has changed with them. As a start, Arias has organized a strong, five-party coalition, recruited some able talent for his government, and drafted the rudiments of a program calling for tighter tax collections, a much-needed plan for urban renewal and continued negotiations for a new Panama Canal treaty.

An even bigger job will be to soothe the country's lingering political tensions. After the announcement of Arias' victory, Samudio cried "fraud" and accused the National Guard of installing Arias as President. A few hours later, the government-dominated Electoral Tribunal, which oversees the Election Board and is theoretically superior to it, declared the board's vote count invalid. To make its action stick, however, the tribunal would have to get the support of the National Guard; and Panama's military seemed in no mood to let the politicians fight the election all over again.