Panama: The Politics
Author: Laurie Cooper

Politics in Panama has been more of constitutional democracy
throughout the 20th century. The history of coup led by General
Manuel Noriega back in 1968 has brought power to the military as
Noriega had manipulated most of the highest officials of the
government. It resulted to economic and diplomatic conflicts
within Panama which affects the US relation to Panama. When
Panama lost efforts to remove the dictatorship of Noriega, the
US stepped with intentions to protect its assets established in
Panama. When Noriega had slowly lost its power with low civil
and public supports, he surrendered to the US. The Panama was
then restored to democracy by 1991.

At present, politics in Panama is under the framework of
constitutional representative democracy. There are three
branches of the government namely executive, legislative and
judicial. The executive branch consists of the president who is
elected by the people for a term of five years. He serves as the
head of the government and the head of the state and appoints
the members of the national cabinet. Currently, the president of
Panama is Martin Torrijos who was elected since 2004. Together
with the president are two vice presidents. The two vice
presidents in the current politics in Panama are Samuel Lewis
Navarro who serves as the first vice president and Ruben
Arosemena Valdez serving as the second vice president. They are
also elected for the same term. Legislative branch previously
consists of 78 members but was changed to 74 in the 2004
political reform. Finally, the national Supreme Court, the 5
superior courts and 3 courts of appeal composed the judicial
branch of Panama.

The politics of Panama also composes other independent
commissions that functions separately from the three executive
branches. One of which is the Electoral Tribunal which takes
responsibility in the electoral law and policies and its
implementation. They are in charge of voter's registration, flow
of election, judgment of electoral conflicts and disputes and
other matters related to election. Politics of Panama also
involves the independent responsibility of the Controller
General of the Republic of Panama whose main function is to take
charge of State funds. They are responsible for managing public
fund taking into account budget flow and expenditures of the
State. Also, independent responsibilities are given to the
Ministry of Public whose main function is to oversee the
country's interests and its municipalities.

The most known and active political party of Panama is
Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) who concerns with economic
matters and focuses on Panama's child's welfare and urban poor.
Other political parties of Panama include The Arnulfist Party,
the president's current party, which emphasizes on rural
population of Panama. The National Liberal Republican Movement
and Democratic Change and The Popular Block are two political
parties that consist of pro-business groups and former Christian
Democrats. These two parties comprise the upper and middles
class with ties on the business community in Panama.

Politics of Panama has been generally corrupt in the past
years. However, there are various attempts from the current
government to make political reforms to support sustainable
economic development in Panama.


About The Author: Laurie Cooper, of Cpanama Real Estate Corp.,
is an expert on Panama real estate. For more information, please
visit http://www.cpanama.com.