Panama presidency won by stand-in for fugitive

What happened

José Raúl Mulino, a last-minute stand-in for barred former President Ricardo Martinelli, won Panama’s presidency Sunday. Mulino, 64, was Martinelli’s running mate before the former president was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison. He has been campaigning for Mulino from inside the Nicaraguan Embassy, where he was granted asylum. Mulino’s 35% put him 9 percentage points ahead of his main challengers, all of whom conceded Sunday night.

When Martinelli “invited me to be vice president, I never imagined this,” Mulino told supporters. It is “a very bizarre situation, unprecedented” not just in Panama “but any other Latin American country that I can think of,” Michael Shifter at Inter-American Dialogue said to The Associated Press. It’s still unclear whether Mulino will be “Martinelli’s puppet” or chart his own path, he added.

To continue reading this article…

Create a free account

Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.

Already have an account? Sign in

Subscribe to The Week

Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.

Cancel or pause at any time.

Already a subscriber to The Week?

Unlimited website access is included with Digital and Print + Digital subscriptions.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Yours Bulletin is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – admin@yoursbulletin.com. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Panama presidency won by stand-in for fugitive

What happened

Who said what

What next?

Leave a Comment Cancel reply