The eventual disqualification of the presidential candidate due to the alliance between the Realizing Goals (RM) party and the Alianza party, Ricardo Martinelli, according to experts, would make the contest more close among the rest of the candidates seeking to reach the Palacio de las Garzas in the election next May 5.

Although there are sectors that assure that even having a final conviction, the departure of the former president as a presidential candidate is not automatic, there are those who consider that the race for the Presidency without Martinelli would give possibilities to at least 5 of the 8 presidential candidates, including the José Raúl Mulino himself.

For political analyst Danilo Toro, Martinelli’s departure could leave a space of considerable instability, from a political and time point of view, at least for the remainder of the month of February.

“It will be unstable due to the void that Martinelli’s departure would leave, and that space will be disputed not only by the candidates, but also by the election itself; That is to say, there is the risk that some percentage of the voters who would go for Martinelli decide not to want to go to vote because their candidate is no longer in the race,” he said.

The other percentage, he assured, would be distributed among several of the remaining candidates, so the presidential race could tighten up a bit. He added that there could be a scenario in which the candidates are very close to each other, competing by very small margins of difference.

“This has already happened in Panama not just once, but on several occasions, we would have to see, but that scenario is perfectly possible,” he noted.

But which of the candidates could attract the votes that Martinelli would no longer receive if he is disqualified?

For Toro, this will depend on the degree of proximity they have to the popular space that Martinelli currently monopolizes. “That they tell something that the voter understands… it is not so much what you say, but that you are clear, that it is decodable for the voter.”
Toro also does not rule out José Raúl Mulino from being among the first, although he assures that this has not been presented as an option with greater possibilities than other competitors. “The reason has nothing to do with numbers, but rather has to do with the track record that each candidate has. “Mulino would be entering the campaign last, but with an image already built,” he indicated.

Meanwhile, political analyst Edwin Cabrera expressed that with Martinelli’s imminent departure from the presidential election the table is now leveled for everyone.

”Let the truth be told, the percentages that distanced Martinelli from first place in the polls versus those who came from second, third, fourth, even eighth, were very high,” he stated.

Now, he analyzed, two big questions arise: Where will all those Martinelli voters go? And how many votes can Martinelli transfer to Mulino from that number of people who say they would vote for him?

”That is a mystery that will be revealed in the coming days when the different proposed strategies and speeches of the presidential candidates begin to be executed to see who captures the most,” he said.

Cabrera also did not remove José Raúl Mulino from his analysis and with possibilities of victory, and assures that at the moment he sees him between 1 and 5 of all candidates for the presidential seat. “With Ricardo Martinelli out, the table is more even,” he stated.

While for political scientist Enoch Adames it is too early to anticipate an outcome. However, he said that perhaps the provisional advantages, in such a controversial competition between eight candidates, are between Roux, Torrijos and Lombana.

Regarding Mulino’s candidacy, Adames considered that on its own it would not recover from the low percentage in which it is immersed. “Unless Ricardo Martinelli’s victimization strategy constitutes the emotional impulse that the endorsement mechanism requires for it to work,” she indicated.

He clarified that the endorsement or transfer of votes between actors does not occur mechanically in the electoral sphere. “This requires an impulse or support point. It is like Archimedes’ lever, which requires an initial point to amplify the effort,” she noted.

He added that Martinelli’s asylum, as a victimization strategy, could provide the necessary extra to boost that candidacy. “Even so, it is a complex or difficult electoral bet,” he exclaimed.

Javier Ordinola, an expert in electoral issues, considered that he does not believe that Martinelli’s departure from the presidential race will occur automatically and if so, the electoral law would be violated “since the Electoral Court cannot take ex officio action to remove him. because there is no procedure in the law for them to do so.”

However, he considered that if Martinelli were not a candidate, the voters who initially intended to vote for him could decide to support the presidential candidates Martín Torrijos, Rómulo Roux or Ricardo Lombana.

Yesterday Martinelli’s lawyer, Carlos Carrillo, announced that he presented an appeal for clarification of the sentence in response to the decision made by the Second Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice not to admit the cassation presented after the 10-year prison sentence of former president Martinelli.

“We are asking for clarifications and we are warning the court of other irregularities in terms of the processing that has been given to the file while it is in cassation, and since it is something unprecedented, we have to wait for the Court to rule at a specific time,” he said.

He maintained that among the irregularities there is the fact that a cassation was resolved when the challenge that was presented by the former president’s lawyers against the actions of Judge María Eugenia López had not been executed, as well as that of other defendants that was pending. to resolve and that, he assures, he was just notified and that still a decision of non-admission came out.

He stated that until yesterday they were waiting for a de facto appeal in the Second Court and another for annulment that had been there for months, in Judge Baloisa Marquínez’s own office, which has not been resolved either. “We are surprised by the haste to omit or at least speak out in the corresponding resources and the constant pressure to leave Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal defenseless.

When asked about the appeals that would be presented to the Electoral Court in the event of Ricardo Martinelli’s eventual disqualification, Carrillo affirmed that the criminal matter has not ended.

“We are going to complete the criminal case first, and then look at the electoral part. Anticipating interpretations of the electoral situation at this time is inappropriate,” he noted.