Moderators Moderator_02 Posted December 17, 2019 Moderators Share Posted December 17, 2019 Quote OPINION. Electoral bribery, corruption, impunity Posted 16/12/2019 The year 2020 brings the new process of formulating electoral reforms for the elections of 2024. The Citizen Forum Pro Electoral Reforms, a space of civil society that promotes electoral transparency, has recommended that for the next elections the private financing of the electoral campaigns, as well as the so-called electoral criminal jurisdiction, which in the elections of May 2019 protected 180 thousand people. A complimentary proposal of this Forum seeks that the requirements of electoral residence be much more demanding given that the current regime allows candidates to enjoy much broader criteria as electoral residence than voters can use. The experiences of the last two general elections have demonstrated the abuse committed by deputies and other elected officials by distributing privileges and promising jobs in the State. These two situations should be prohibited. This type of electoral bribe distorts the will of the citizens and subjects the country to having political leaders that are outdated and committed to impunity, corruption, and patronage. - LA PRENSA, Dec 17 https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/opinion-electoral-bribery-corruption-impunity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Moderator_03 Posted September 4, 2021 Moderators Share Posted September 4, 2021 Quote Organized Crime penetrates political system Posted 03/09/2021 The malfeasance of the National Assembly breaks through with its reforms to the Electoral Code. The information we have received in recent weeks feeds and justifies the fears that drug trafficking and organized crime have penetrated the political parties - especially the PRD - whose leadership neither keeps appearances nor cleans up its ranks. The words and actions of Benicio Robinson align with those of the President of the Republic and those of his colleagues Raúl Pineda and Crispiano Adames, when he said that "in this country we cannot continue to call everyone a thief, a thug," to conclude that if a person has been convicted and served his sentence, "we have to see how to give him a chance." And he has no better idea than to receive money for their electoral campaigns. You just have to imagine the favors that will be owed to those "reformed", many of whom, after paying their sentence, continue to commit crimes. And of those cases, there are plenty of them. There is no doubt that this breed owes favors and pays for them with bills that are true insults to decent citizens. The country cannot continue to entrust its legal security to people who display the most arrogant malfeasance and who pledge our electoral system in exchange for staying in power at all costs.- LA PRENSA, Sep. 3. https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/organized-crime-penetrates-political-system Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Moderator_02 Posted September 10, 2021 Author Moderators Share Posted September 10, 2021 Quote Panama’s political debauchery fed by pride Posted 09/09/2021 To the serious current circumstances, the deputies of the ruling party - the PRD - have added another crisis: a political one, which is also unnecessary. These are the reforms to the Electoral Code, legislation that is reviewed after each election. To this end, a permanent commission is set up that meets every week - for months - to discuss and reach consensus on the reforms, acquiescence which is reached with the active participation of both civil society and the political parties represented in the National Assembly (AN). Despite the consensus, many reforms approved in the aforementioned commission, upon reaching the AN, are eliminated or modified, losing their essence and spirit. But this time, things in the AN have gotten out of hand. The magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) –which supports the reforms before the deputies– left the discussion table and asked to suspend the debate on the project. This request was openly ignored by the deputies, who continued to approve their own reforms, tailored to their needs and convenience, completely distorting the work done and creating justified concerns in society, since what they want is a clear setback in electoral matters. The debauchery witnessed in the session of the Government Commission of the AN provoked reactions from organized civil society that, in addition to the request of the TE, asked the deputies - also without success - to immediately suspend the discussion of the project. The deputies have come so far in their insatiable thirst for power that the President of the Republic himself has had to intervene in a kind of mediation, so that the TE magistrates and the deputies meet next week, “bearing in mind that every five years the country must modernize and strengthen its regulations in this matter, with responsibility and respect to contribute to the consolidation of our democracy ”. The response of the president of the AN, Crispiano Adames, is not only defiant, but also overloaded with a pride that does little help, and rather irritates even more the already heated spirits. According to Adames, the opinions that arise on this issue should lead to conciliation "and not exacerbate or create conditions of unrest that only increase the level of hopelessness." But he warned that "the Assembly will not condition or decline or renounce its constitutional role of restructuring the laws ...". Although the deputies have this role, it is no less true that Panamanian society has lost confidence in their work - and proof of this is in all the major reform dialogues that take place outside of their bosom - given that they do not legislate for the country, but for themselves and for the interests of their party, which delegitimizes any reform they pass in that direction. The country does not deserve to go through these moments of unfortunate politics and the deputies owe greater respect to institutions and democracy. For this reason, it is worth reminding the Legislative Branch that the alleged sovereignty demanded by the deputies to approve their alleged reforms to the electoral processes is not a matter that concerns only a small handful of politicians. In this matter, the sovereign is the Panamanian people, who demand decency, equal conditions, transparency and respect for the popular will. We will not renounce our sovereignty in matters that concern electoral institutions and democracy. It is up to Deputy Adames to define whether the Assembly will rise to the occasion. – LA PRENSA , Sep. 9. https://www.newsroompanama.com/opinion/panamas-political-debauchery-fed-by-pride Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Moderator_03 Posted October 18, 2021 Moderators Share Posted October 18, 2021 Quote Electoral reforms -“Democratic stagnation and opacity” Opaque lawmakers Posted 17/10/2021 José Ramón Icaza, president of Panama’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture( Cciap) has labeled the electoral reforms passed by the National Assembly as "democratic stagnation amid opacity and convenience." In the Chamber’s Sunday newsletter The union criticizes the approval while the citizenry had their backs turned, in the middle of the night, and recalls that it is a project that in importance surpasses any other since it is about the rules for choosing just over 4,000 candidates to more than 800 popularly elected positions in 2024. The CCIAP says that it was expected to constitute another step in the evolution of Panamanian democracy towards a more participatory and inclusive system, but, on the other hand, " the management and orientation of the discussions prevent us from having any hope in this regard." “ Today, just as it did when the Electoral Tribunal [TE] withdrew from the discussion due to the arbitrariness of some deputies, the CCIAP raises its voice to denounce the opacity in the management and the intentions of the deputies, but also the passivity of who are called to be the custodians of the main democratic instrument. In the second debate of bill 544, the TE magistrates had the duty to defend transcendental issues, such as the allocation of seats in the multi-member circuits, which openly disputes with the system of direct elections established by the 'Political Constitution'. As it was expected, they would defend their proposal to review the electoral jurisdiction, it passed as found in the current 'Electoral Code' ”, the union maintains. https://www.newsroompanama.com/business/electoral-reforms-democratic-stagnation-and-opacity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Moderator_03 Posted October 19, 2021 Moderators Share Posted October 19, 2021 Quote Transparency International rejects Panama electoral “reforms” Posted 19/10/2021 The Panamanian Chapter of Transparency International (TI) has weighed in on the rejection of the electoral reforms approved "via early morning" on October 15 in the National Assembly. "For this reason, we call for citizen mobilization to demand our right to fair elections, where the vote is counted fairly and the candidates -of parties or independents, men or women- run with equal conditions," the foundation said in a statement. Posted Monday, October 18. TI pointed out that they reject "the opportunism of the deputies of political parties and their betrayal" of the citizen consensus of the National Electoral Reform Commission (CNRE), which is essential and legitimate in any participatory democracy. It said that what was approved by the Assembly reduces justice, accountability, and transparency. TI mentioned the following aspects of the document approved by the deputies: persistence of the electoral jurisdiction to generate impunity, inequity in electoral subsidies between parties and independents, increase in private financing caps for electoral campaigns, persistence of double nomination, formulas for counting votes in multi-member circuits, reduction in the years of statute of limitations for electoral crimes, amnesty for those who do not submit reports of campaign income and expenditures, and escape mechanism to evade compliance with the parity formula. "These reforms would generate such inequity and injustice that they would eliminate the legitimacy of whoever is elected under them," the organization added. https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/transparency-international-rejects-panama-electoral-reforms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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