Presidential and Legislative Elections, 5 May 2024

On 5 May 2024, presidential and legislative elections were held in Panama. A total of 885 public positions were contested, including 701 representatives of district subdivisions (corregimientos), 81 mayors, 71 national deputies, 20 deputies for the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), 11 councillors, and the national president (France24 2024). The president is elected by a relative majority, while proportional representation is used for electing National Assembly members and corregimiento representatives. The election management body is the General Election Plan (PLAGEL), which is a branch of the Electoral Tribunal, an autonomous and independent body (UN ECLAC n.d.). Panama’s recent electoral reforms (2021 and 2023) introduced changes in the areas of electoral calendar, public and private financing, media regulations and gender equality, among others (OAS EOM 2024).

Ricardo Martinelli, former president of Panama (2009–2014) was initially favoured to win the presidential elections but disqualified in March 2024 by the Electoral Tribunal due to his conviction for corruption offences. José Mulino, Martinelli's former running mate, then took over the candidacy for the Realizando Metas party. However, Mulino's candidacy faced legal challenges until just days before the elections, creating uncertainty in the race. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled Mulino's candidacy constitutional, allowing him to proceed (Shortell 2024) and ultimately to win, with 34.41 per cent of the vote (BBC 2024).

Only 16.65% of the candidates in the 2024 election in Panama were women. This unequal proportion compared to men did not prevent them from suffering digital attacks that questioned their physical appearance, racial ancestry, and religious affiliation, "reflected deep-rooted stereotypes" (Liste 2024, Torres-Lista 2024).

The Electoral Tribunal, announced the piloting of electronic voting machines at the ATLAPA Convention Center , marking the third time Panama would be using this technology in a general election since 2014 (Tribunal Electoral 2024). However, electronic voting was suspended 15 days prior to the elections due to concerns expressed by political parties. Separately, a suspension of online voting was announced on 23 April due to a discrepancy in the order of candidates on the digital ballot compared to the established order for the physical ballot. The Electoral Tribunal subsequently reversed this decision despite the change in the order of the candidacies. (Tribunal Electoral 2023). Election observers of the Organization of American States (OAS) were informed that the error resulted from lack of a robust quality control process in earlier stages of the platform’s development.

Electoral technology issues thus affected the election management body’s credibility with stakeholders. More generally, the OAS mission noted successive changes to electoral regulations during the electoral period, affecting their navigability. Voters were also impacted by the last-minute withdrawal of one president/vice-president candidate team, which remained on the ballot. The election nevertheless took place in a peaceful, if tense and uncertain atmosphere (OAS EOM 2024).

The OAS mission noted the Electoral Tribunal’s efforts in the information environment including the "Verificado Contigo" (Checked with You) portal to detect and combat fake news during the campaign. This was significant, particularly as the major media outlets did not conduct fact-checking of their own (OAS EOM 2024). Verificado Contigo reported dis-misinformation about candiate position on ballot paper and exit polls (Verificado Contigo 2024).

Turnout was the highest in three decades at 77.65 per cent, surpassing the 71.01 per cent turnout in 2019 (International IDEA 2024). Panama remains below the regional average for women’s participation, with approximately 21 per cent of seats being won by women candidates (OAS EOM 2024).