Cortizo wins by a small margin. Roux challenges the result. PRD is the strongest party in the Legislative Assembly.

PANAMA - In Brief 06 May 2019 by Marco Fernandez

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Laurentino “Nito” Cortizo won the Presidential election tonight by a slight margin, so small that the Cambio Democratico Party of Romulo Roux is challenging the results thus prolonging the official recognition of the results. Cortizo’s Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD (social-democratic under General Torrijos´s leadership four decades ago, but moving to the center in the last two decades) obtained close to 620 thousand votes (33 percent). Rómulo Roux, of the Ricardo Martinelli-backed CD Party, came a close second with 31 percent of the votes. Ricardo Lombana, an independent, whose numbers were climbing fast in the last months received 20 percent of the votes: he was a pleasant surprise for the anti-traditional-parties movement. The rest of the candidates (including José Blandón of the incumbent Panameñista Party) were also-rans with less than 17 percent of the total.Twenty five percent of the votes were tallied for the independent candidates despite the high hopes for a larger turnover. The participation in the polls was around 73 percent, a minor decrease from the average of the last four contests.If these results stand, the projections made by pollsters were accurate in the order of the candidates, but way off in the percentage differences. No recognized firm came close to predict the close margin between Cortizo and Roux.Cortizo -the eldest person in the field at 66- won in the countryside by a large margin and in low income urban centers. Roux did well in some urban sectors – including the Province of Panama- and intermediate cities. Lombana got most of his votes from the youngsters in the medium-to-high income urban centers. The left -again-failed to mainta...