General elections were held in Panama on 5 May 2024 to elect a new President of Panama, members of the National Assembly and local governments. Due to constitutional term limits, incumbent president Laurentino Cortizo was ineligible for a second consecutive term. The winners of the general election, including the new president of Panama, were inaugurated on 1 July.
The conservative candidate José Raúl Mulino, who was appointed as presidential candidate of Realizing Goals following the conviction and subsequent disqualification of former president Ricardo Martinelli, won the election with 34.2% of the vote. Mulino defeated a total of seven other candidates, among whom his closest rival was Ricardo Lombana of MOCA, who received around 24.6%.
The governing Democratic Revolutionary Party suffered its worst ever electoral result, despite being the largest political party in Panama. Its candidate, incumbent vice president José Gabriel Carrizo, came in sixth place with 5.88% of the vote; and the party suffered significant losses in the legislative and local elections, losing the mayorships of the most populated districts of the country, including Panamá District, San Miguelito, Colón, Arraiján, La Chorrera, David, and Santiago de Veraguas.
In contrast, there was an outstanding performance by new parties and independent politicians. Realizing Goals, the party of the president-elect, which was founded in 2021 by former president Ricardo Martinelli, gained 14 seats in the National Assembly. Another Way Movement, founded in late 2019 by Ricardo Lombana, became the most-voted opposition party by gaining a fourth of the presidential vote, three members of the National Assembly and numerous local governments, including the mayorship of Santiago. Neither the Democratic Revolutionary Party or the Panameñista Party, the traditional biggest two parties of Panama, were in either of the top two coalitions.
Electoral system.
Of the 71 members of the National Assembly, 26 are elected in single-member constituencies and 45 by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies. Each district with more than 40,000 inhabitants forms a constituency. Constituencies elect one MP for every 30,000 residents and an additional representative for every fraction over 10,000. Around three million people were eligible to vote in the election.
In single-member constituencies MPs are elected using the first-past-the-post system. In multi-member constituencies MPs are elected using party list proportional representation according to a double quotient; the first allocation of seats uses a simple quotient, further seats are allotted using the quotient divided by two, with any remaining seats are awarded to the parties with the greatest remainder.
The president is elected by plurality vote in a single round.
Presidential candidates.
Candidate selection.
Independent candidates.
In order to get on the ballot, independents had to gather and submit an amount of signatures that exceeded 2% of the vote in the previous election for the position they were seeking, with a maximum of three independent nominations per position. The three independent presidential nominations were won by Zulay Rodríguez, a two-term Assembly member for the Democratic Revolutionary Party, Maribel Gordón, an economist and 2019 vice-presidential candidate of the now-defunct Broad Front for Democracy, and Melitón Arrocha, a former Commerce Minister and member of the Assembly for the Panameñista Party.
Realizing Goals.
The presidential primary of the Realizing Goals party, a new party founded by former president Ricardo Martinelli due to disagreements with the president of Democratic Change (also originally founded by Martinelli), Rómulo Roux, was held on 4 June 2023. Martinelli won the nomination with over 96% of the primary vote. He attempted to select his wife, Marta Linares de Martinelli, as his running mate, but the legality of this selection was questioned and resulted in Linares declining the vice-presidential nomination. José Raúl Mulino was subsequently selected as RM's official vice-presidential candidate. The party also celebrated an alliance with the Alliance Party.
Democratic Revolutionary Party.
The ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party held its primary election on 11 June 2023. Incumbent Vice-President José Gabriel Carrizo won with 53.5% of the vote against Assembly member Crispiano Adames, who won 29% of the primary vote. He selected Camilo Alleyne, a former health minister, as his running mate. The Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement maintained its alliance with the PRD.
Democratic Change.
The Democratic Change primary was held on 9 July 2023. Rómulo Roux, the party's 2019 presidential candidate and former canal and foreign minister, won the primary with 52.6% of the vote over Yanibel Ábrego, who attracted 46.2% of the vote. Ábrego, an Assembly member, ran promising to celebrate an electoral alliance with Martinelli and Realizing Goals.
Panameñista Party.
José Isabel Blandón won the Panameñista Party primary unopposed. The party later formed an electoral alliance with Democratic Change. As such, Rómulo Roux became the party's presidential candidate, while Blandón became the vice-presidential candidate.
People's Party.
The People's Party initially considered forming an alliance with Democratic Change and the Panameñista Party, but this proposal fell through. The party opted to nominate former president Martín Torrijos instead. Rosario Turner, a former health minister, was chosen as his running mate.
Another Way Movement.
The Another Way Movement is a new political party founded by Ricardo Lombana, who came third in the 2019 Panamanian presidential election. It nominated Lombana for the presidency through a national congress, as the party has less than the 100,000 adherents that would require a primary. He selected Michael Chen as his running mate.
Independent Social Alternative Party.
The new Independent Social Alternative Party (PAIS) initially selected José Alberto Álvarez as its candidate via a party congress on 29 July 2023. The party later backed the independent candidacy of Melitón Arrocha. The party declared it was not aware of Arrocha's April 29 decision to endorse Martín Torrijos, with party president Álvarez referring to it as an "unpleasant surprise." The party unlinked itself from Arrocha's decision. As Arrocha did not formally decline his candidacy, he remained on the ballot as both an independent candidate and PAIS's presidential candidate.
Disqualification of Ricardo Martinelli.
In 2021, former president Ricardo Martinelli announced that he would run again for president as leader of Realizing Goals. On 18 July 2023, however, a criminal court sentenced him to more than 10 years' imprisonment for money laundering, relating to the "New Business" case involving the granting of lucrative government contracts to businesses that later transferred money to a front set up by Martinelli. His conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court on 2 February 2024, making him ineligible to run again for president in elections that he wanted to contest later in the year. On 4 March his candidacy was formally revoked by the Electoral Tribunal, which declared his running-mate, former foreign minister José Raúl Mulino, as the replacement presidential candidate in his place without a vice-president. On 3 May, the Supreme Court voted 8–1 to dismiss a legal challenge against Mulino's candidacy on the grounds that he was not selected as candidate in a party primary and lacked a vice-presidential candidate, arguing that to do so would be a greater harm to Realizing Goals and the Alliance Party, which would have been left without a presidential candidate.
Since his conviction in February 2024, Martinelli has insisted that he would continue his presidential campaign, but has since sought asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City. He has posted video messages supporting Mulino throughout the campaign.
Campaign.
The election was held against a backdrop of voter discontent. One poll found an 86% disapproval rating for the incumbent president, Nito Cortizo, and that 9 out of 10 of Panamanians thought the country was on the wrong path. Another found two out of three citizens wanted "radical change". The same poll found were 83% are dissatisfied with their democracy.
Among significant issues during the campaign were corruption, the economy, the environment and constitutional reform, with Rómulo Roux and Ricardo Lombana pledging to revise or replace the current constitution enacted in 1972. Specifically, Lombana wants the presidential election to be decided by a run-off. Martín Torrijos pledged to jumpstart the economy by investing in the Panama Canal, while Roux pledged to implement an "aggressive" job creation scheme and improve public services.
The closure of the Cobre Panamá copper mine in 2023 was also a significant issue, with all candidates supporting the Supreme Court's decision to annul a 20-year contract awarded to First Quantum Minerals as unconstitutional. However, Roux, Lombana and Maribel Gordón supported the total closure and conversion of the mining site.
On the topic of corruption, Lombana pledged to fight the influence of drug money in Panamanian politics. According to Gallup, 57% of Panamanians believed corruption is the most important issue ahead of the election.
José Raúl Mulino pledged to close the Darién Gap as a route for migrants heading to the United States and repatriate migrants already in Panama, while promising to respect their rights. He also pledged to provide help to Ricardo Martinelli once he was in office. Lombana opposed closing the Darién Gap and instead proposed to improve security conditions for migrants transiting the country.
Over the course of the campaign, Zulay Rodríguez attempted to resign her seat in the Assembly, without success.
On 30 April, presidential candidate Melitón Arrocha announced that he was supporting former president Martín Torrijos, but did not formally withdraw his candidacy.
Conduct.
Polling opened at 07:00 on 5 May and closed at 16:00 Eastern Standard Time. There were no reported incidents, and voting went smoothly. However, inconsistencies in vote counting were reported in Bocas del Toro, Panamá Province, Penonomé, and Veraguas.
Results.
With a turnout of 77%, the election had the highest turnout since the end of military rule and the restoration of a democratic government in 1989.
Presidential election.
All the parties received the 2% of the vote that is the minimum necessary to avoid dissolution in the presidential race, except the MOLIRENA and PAIS. MOLIRENA avoided dissolution by receiving 3% of the vote for deputy, but PAIS did not receive 2% in any election and so was dissolved.
Election of PARLACEN Deputies.
Also elected were Panama's deputies to the Central American Parliament. These were elected based on the presidential vote and distributed proportionally. MOCA and Democratic Change did not nominate any candidates. The following candidates were elected:
The outgoing president, Nito Cortizo, and the outgoing vice-president, José Gabriel Carrizo, are also automatically assigned a seat in the PARLACEN, but have not manifested whether they will take those seats.
The election saw several candidates under investigation, such as former president Juan Carlos Varela and the sons of former president Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal (who were elected as alternates), win. Several voices have spoken in favor of Panama leaving the PARLACEN.
Legislative election.
The legislative elections produced no majority in the Assembly, necessitating the formation of coalitions in order to control the body. Ultimately, RM forged an alliance with the PRD, CD, the Alliance Party, MOLIRENA, 6 Panameñista deputies, and 1 People's Party deputy to control the Assembly with 44 votes and elected Dana Castañeda President of the National Assembly.
Political independents performed notably well in the election, winning 20 seats for a net gain of 15. Nineteen of these are affiliated with the Coalición Vamos, a political organization dedicated to helping political independents be elected to positions across the country, led by Juan Diego Vásquez and Gabriel Silva and which was endorsed by musician and former tourism minister, Rubén Blades. Eduardo Gaitán, who was elected in the multi-member constituency based in San Miguelito, received the most votes of any candidate for the Assembly in the country. Neftalí Zamora, also affiliated with Vamos, became the youngest member-elect of the Assembly. After the election, Betserai Richards, the sole independent not elected as part of Vamos, announced he would join Vamos's legislative grouping. The members of this group all renounced several privileges given to Assembly members, as did MOCA member-elect José Pérez Barboni.
The election also saw an extremely low rate of reelection among members who sought to retain their seats, as well as a large amount of young candidates who were elected to the Assembly and several major mayoralties.
Incumbents who retired.
The following incumbents opted not to run for reelection or sought a different office:
Incumbents defeated.
60 incumbents ran for reelection, but the vast majority were defeated:
Incumbents who lost renomination.
Three incumbents, all of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, were defeated in primary elections:
Controversies.
Some seats saw disputed results. Twenty-two elected deputies saw their elections challenged.
In Bocas del Toro, one seat was allocated to Democratic Change candidate Yesica Romero, while the second is contested between Benicio Robinson, one of the incumbent PRD members who is also the party's president, and Ubalde Vallejos of the Panameñista Party. Official results certified Robinson as the winner, but Vallejos announced he will challenge the results, alleging Robinson spent 3