Panama could elect a multimillionaire supermarket magnate as president when votes are counted following elections yesterday.
Conservative Ricardo Martinellis knack for business has been drawing poor voters worried about an economic crisis and high inflation.
Polls have given Mr Martinelli a double-digit lead over the center-left ruling party candidate Ms Balbina Herrera as the government has struggled to rein in crime and high food and fuel prices.
Concern about the flagging economy and high inflation has dominated surveys. One showed Mr Martinelli backed by 53 per cent of voters in the lowest income bracket and with a huge 45-point lead over Ms Herrera in poor areas near the capital. Nationwide, an April 23rd survey gave Mr Martinelli a 14-point lead.
“Every 15 days I go to the market and food prices are higher. You can’t buy meat anymore,” said Oreida Sanchez (36) a teacher, after casting a vote for Mr Martinelli’s Democratic Change (CD) party in the run-down neighbourhood of Calidonia.
Mr Martinelli’s promise to use a “strong hand” on crime has also appealed to many in Panama, which sits on the route for trafficking South American cocaine to the US market.
“There is so much crime, I am scared to leave the house,” said Ana Martinez (70) a retired accountant, voting in a middle-class Panama city neighborhood.
The ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) has a strong support base and President Martin Torrijos has been popular but Ms Herrera has an anti-US past and old ties to a former military strongman that rankle some voters.
Fueled by US-Asia trade through its transoceanic canal and robust banking activity, Panama’s dollarised economy has led Latin America with growth of near or above 10 per cent in recent years. But 2009 growth could slow to 3 per cent or less as the global crisis hits credit and shipping.
Demand for luxury apartments in the skyscrapers that dominate Panama city’s skyline is dropping. Builders say some new projects are on hold and half-built condos are up for sale.
Mr Martinelli (57) a US-educated and self-made businessman who owns the dominant Super 99 supermarket chain, wants to build ports, highways and a Panama city subway if he wins. He also would impose a flat tax of between 10 percent and 20 per cent to appeal to foreign investors keen for a clearer tax code.
Ms Herrera (54) clashed with Washington when she led protests against former president George HW Bush, who visited after a 1989 US invasion to oust dictator Gen Manuel Noriega. – (Reuters)