This Sunday, Panamanians elected José Raúl Mulino as the country's next president. Mulino will take office on July 1.
With more than 90% of the tables counted, Mulino reached 34.45% of the votes. In Panama, the one who obtains the most votes is the one who wins; there is no second ballot.
Below Mulino were Ricardo Lombana (Movimiento Otro Camino) with 25.04%; Martín Torrijos (Partido Popular , 15.96%); Rómulo Roux (a Partido Panameñista, 11.47%); and Zulay Rodríguez (independent, 6.15%). The candidate of the ruling party PRD, José Gabriel Carrizo, obtained only 5.82% of the votes.
In addition to the president, the entire National Assembly was renewed. Of the 71 seats, so far 56 have been distributed and Mulino's party, Realizing Goals, managed to obtain 13.
Calculations indicate that the new ruling party will not have a majority and will have to negotiate with the opposition parties to advance its legislative agenda.
The rest of the seats were distributed as follows: PRD (12), Cambio Democrático (11), Partido Panameñista (7), Movimiento Otro Camino (2), Partido Popular (1) and 10 for two of the three free nomination lists.