Panamá- 1994- General Election
Following the U.S. invasion of Panama on December 20, 1989 and the fall of the military regime—then led by Manuel Noriega—that had held power since 1968, Panama prepared for its first free and fair national elections in over two decades, scheduled for May 1994. In a fragile post-conflict context, a newly restructured Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal Electoral de Panamá) was tasked with organizing the vote.
Led by newly appointed magistrates with no prior experience in electoral administration, the Tribunal faced a profound credibility deficit. To overcome this, it adopted a three-pronged strategy: seeking technical assistance from experienced electoral authorities in Latin America through CAPEL; partnering with the Catholic Church’s Commission for Justice and Peace to build a trusted domestic observation network; and launching Panama’s first National Commission for Electoral Reform. These efforts led to key institutional changes that helped demonstrate the Tribunal’s independence from political influence and its capacity to organize elections and resolve disputes. By May 1994, the Tribunal’s work enabled a free and fair election and Panama’s first peaceful transfer of power—from President Guillermo Endara to Ernesto Pérez Balladares, candidate of the party founded by the previous military regime.
In this recording, Eduardo Valdés Escoffery—who served as one of the three founding magistrates of the reformed Electoral Tribunal in 1990—recounts how Panama’s electoral authorities rebuilt trust, established lasting institutional safeguards, and delivered credible elections under extraordinary circumstances. He reflects on the importance of collaboration with national and international partners, and how the success of the 1994 elections marked a turning point for electoral legitimacy in Panama, where elections have since continued to be widely regarded as free and fair.
Eduardo Valdés Escoffery: Eduardo served as Magistrate of Panama’s Electoral Tribunal from 1990 to 2025, overseeing the country’s post-authoritarian electoral reconstruction. Trained in law and economics at the University of Panama and El Colegio de México, he played a leading role in organizing the 1994 general elections—the first free and fair vote after the fall of the military regime—as well as several national referendums and electoral cycles that followed. A key voice in modernizing Panama’s electoral system, Valdés Escoffery is also the author of Acontecer Electoral Panameño and the trilogy La Nueva Era Democrática ('Panama's New Democratic Era'), chronicling the evolution of the Electoral Tribunal from 1990 to 2024, which is available here: https://www.tribunal-electoral.gob.pa/publicaciones/libros/
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