Panama Presidential
Campaign Gets Early
Start
A year and eight months
before Panamanians will
vote in their
presidential elections
(May 2009), the isthmus
entered the electoral
whirlwind on Monday.
The main contestant in
that fight for power is
the governing PRD,
Democratic Revolutionary
Party, defined its
strategy on Sunday in a
meeting of its national
board of directors,
which gave priority to
its internal unity.
Despite the diversity of
trends and contestants,
a normality for the PRD,
a party with more than
one million members, the
majority agreed to avoid
that a serious external
factor, like relations
with the United States,
could split them.
According to reports,
President Martin
Torrijos chose to ignore
Washington's pressure of
conditioning approval of
a free trade agreement
on the resignation of
National Assembly
President Miguel
Gonzalez.
The PRD board set March
9, 2008 for its National
Congress, which will be
attended by 4,200
delegates, and where the
new authorities will be
elected, to smooth the
way for the presidential
race.
|
|
