The political career of former president Ricardo Martinelli has become difficult since he announced his presidential aspirations for the party he founded, Realizando Metas (RM), and it has become more acute after his victory in the last presidential primary elections of the group.

His warning: “They are going to have to kill me because I have to participate.”

His adversaries seek, through legal resources, that he be disqualified from running as a presidential candidate in 2024.

On the other hand, on May 18, the lawyer Neftaly Jaén filed a copyright claim before the Electoral Tribunal, for the use of the RM logo and brand.

Jaén filed the appeal on behalf of JWEnterprise INC and in the documentation indicated that based on number 3 of Article No.143 of the Constitution  , the plenary session of the Electoral Tribunal must hear “this unusual controversy never before raised in the history of the political parties and order to make the necessary corrective measures that the newly departed party has to carry out”.

The registration certificate No. 28537 protects the trademark “Achieving Goals and Design” and is published in the industrial property bulletin according to the documentation, the lawyer said.

Ducha brand formally belongs to the JWEnterprise INC Company, since December 15, 2020 and is the only one that can use it in the Republic of Panama.

However, the director of Legal Counsel of the Electoral Tribunal, in a note sent to Alma Cortés, RM’s first deputy secretary general, who opposed Jaén’s complaint, informed her that the party before the electoral jurisdiction complied with the requirements of the electoral standard for the constitution of the political party, including the publicity requirements established by law so that any person affected could oppose it.

Likewise, it indicated that it was possible to verify that the name of the party was formally recognized by the Electoral Tribunal prior to its registration in DIGERPI.

He also said that the Electoral Tribunal cannot annul the name and logo of said party alleging that it is registered in another jurisdiction, since the entity, as the body in charge of regulating the electoral law, of interpreting it and of knowing the controversies that originate its application, is who grants legal status to political parties.

Another stumbling block in Martinelli’s path was that former Supreme Court magistrate Harry Díaz tried to challenge the candidacy in the Electoral Tribunal, but his claim failed.

Díaz, legal representative of Iván Montalvo, argued that Martinelli cannot be a presidential candidate because the ban for re-election expires on June 30, 2024. Therefore, according to Montalvo and Díaz, Martinelli cannot be elected on May 5, 2024, 56 days before the closure expires.

Article No. 178 of the Constitution establishes that officials who have been elected president or vice president may not be re-elected for the same position in the two immediately following presidential terms.

However, the Electoral Administrative Tribunal responded that the complainants did not have legal status to sue because they had not been part of the electoral process.