1989 Panamanian general election

none Panama 1984 Panamanian general election 1984 1994 Panamanian general election 1994 7 May 1989 yes presidential Presidential election 60.48% (first round) 12.65pp63.85% (second round) Guillermo Endara 1993.jpg Guillermo Endara Ricardo Arias Calderón Independent politician 473,838 71.19% Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition 3x4.svg Carlos Duque Ernesto Pérez Balladares Democratic Revolutionary Party 188,914 28.38% National Liberation Coalition Elecciones_presidenciales_de_Panamá_de_1989_-_Resultados_por_provincia.svg Results by province President Manuel Solís Palma Democratic Revolutionary Party Election results annulledGuillermo Endara subsequently recognized as the winner of the election and sworn in during the US invasion of Panama on 20 December 1989; annulment later revoked.Provisional government established General elections were held in Panama on 7 May 1989, with the goal of electing both a new President of the Republic and a new Legislative Assembly. The two primary candidates in the presidential race were Guillermo Endara, who headed Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition (ADOC), a coalition opposed to military ruler Manuel Noriega, and Carlos Duque, who headed the pro-Noriega Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). However, the election was annulled before voting was completed by Noriega's government, and Endara and his running mate Guillermo Ford were attacked in front of foreign media by Noriega supporters, events that contributed to the US invasion of Panama in December of that year. During the invasion, Endara was declared the election's winner and sworn in as the new president of Panama. Background The death of Arnulfo Arias in August 1988, a few days before his eighty-seventh birthday, removed a major obstacle to opposition unity, but also created several new problems. It left the opposition without a charismatic national leader to place at the head of any 1989 electoral ticket.Millett, Richard L. "The failure of Panama's internal opposition, 1987-1989." Conflict resolution and democratization in Panama: implications for U.S. policy. 1992. Washington: The Center for Strategic and International Studies. Pp. 26. The Authentic Panameñista Party, Panama's leading opposition party, divided in December 1988. The Electoral Tribunal formally recognized the faction led by Hildebrando Nicosia Pérez as the legitimate party representative, entitling Nicosia and his colleagues to use the party symbols. According to the opposition, the government engineered the division in the party to sow confusion among the electorate. However, Nicosia's effort to present himself as the heir of Arias was singularly unsuccessful according to the opposition's election results, which showed him receiving less than one percent of the vote. The PPA's main body, including a majority of the party's hierarchy, joined the anti-government Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition (ADOC); the party's secretary-general, Guillermo Endara, was ADOC's presidential candidate. Denied use of the PPA symbol, Endara and the party's legislative candidates competed under the banner of the Authentic Liberal Party, which is the product of a schism that developed in the Liberal Party prior to the 1984 elections. The military rule of Manuel Noriega also provoked a split in the Republican Party (RP), but the majority of the legitimate leadership of the RP participated in the ADOC coalition.The May 7, 1989 Panamanian Elections. International Delegation Report. 1989. Pp. 37. (http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/electionreports/democracy/FinalReportPanama1989.pdf) Two other major parties—the PDC and MOLIRENA—were also part of ADOC. ADOC also had the support of the small Popular Action Party (PAPA), and National Peoples Party (PNP), and defectors from the Liberal and Republican parties, and a dissident faction of the PPA. In addition to Endara, ADOC's electoral slate included Ricardo Arias Calderón of the PDC for first vice president and Guillermo Ford of MOLIRENA for second vice president. Pro-government parties (the PRD, PALA, PR, PL, PPR, PPP, PAN, and PDT) had formed a new electoral coalition, the National Liberation Coalition (COLINA). The PRD was the coalition's leading party and its president, Carlos Alberto Duque Jaén, a business associate of Noriega, was the coalition's presidential candidate. COLINA's other significant party was PALA, led by Ramón Sieiro Murgas, the coalition's candidate for first vice president and a brother-in-law of Noriega. COLINA's candidate for second vice president was Aquilino Boyd, former foreign minister, and former ambassador to the United States, the United Nations and, most recently, the Organization of American States. COLINA, in presenting a united slate for the legislature, contained a broad ideological spectrum that included Communist Party members, businessmen and professionals.The May 7, 1989 Panamanian Elections. International Delegation Report. 1989. Pp. 36. (http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/electionreports/democracy/FinalReportPanama1989.pdf) Results An exit poll of 1,022 voters gave the opposition an overwhelming victory: 55.1% for Endara, but only 39.5% for Duque. The margin shocked Noriega, who either was misled by advisers or really believed that the election would be close enough to manipulate with minimal fraud.Scranton, Margaret E. 1991. The Noriega years: U.S.-Panamanian relations, 1981–1990. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp. 161. Suspecting that Noriega would never allow an honest vote, ADOC organized a count of results from election precincts before they were sent to district centers. As it turned out, Noriega's cronies had taken bogus tally sheets to the district centers in order to make it appear Duque had won in a landslide.In the Time of the Tyrants: Panama, 1968–1990 Koster R.M. Guillermo Sánchez 1990 Norton New York City 0-393-02696-5 registration https://archive.org/details/intimeoftyrantsp00kost On 9 May government-released results gave a clear-cut lead to Duque. By this time, however, the opposition's count was already out. It showed Endara winning in a landslide, with a nearly 3-to-1 lead over Duque. Opposition forces—as well as foreign observers and the clergy—thereupon claimed massive election irregularities. Parliamentary results also indicated an opposition victory.Chronicle of parliamentary elections. Geneva: International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation, Inter-Parliamentary Union. Volume 24, 1990. Pp. 174. President Initial results Final release Guillermo Endara Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition 4 Christian Democratic Party 261598 473838 4 Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement 132011 Authentic Liberal Party 69779 463388 Carlos Duque National Liberation Coalition 9 Democratic Revolutionary Party 120564 188914 9 Labor and Agrarian Party 35264 Liberal Party 12718 Republican Party 5584 Revolutionary Panameñista Party 5533 People's Party of Panama 2919 Nationalist Action Party 1463 Democratic Worker's Party 855 184900 Hildebrando Nicosia Pérez Authentic Panameñista Party 2750 2822 66733 92223 1186754 1186754 Carter Center,The May 7, 1989 Panamanian Elections Center Center. 1989. Pp. 111-114. NohlenElections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 1. [Oxford] [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Pp.533. By province ProvinceEndaraADOCDuqueCOLINANicosiaPPABocas del Toro70.15%27.76%0.46%Coclé59.99%29.70%0.39%Colón75.63%20.31%0.41%Chiriquí65.18%26.86%0.46%Darién40.29%39.64%0.21%Herrera62.78%28.56%0.11%Los Santos59.03%33.93%0.19%Panamá66.92%22.10%0.41%Veraguas54.21%34.76%0.23%San Blas34.40%65.31%0.28%Total71.19%28.38%0.42%Source: Carter Center National Assembly 1989 1991 Total Democratic Alliance of Civic Opposition 4 Christian Democratic Party 219944 27 2 29 Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement 122974 15 2 17 Authentic Liberal Party 61916 9 0 9 404834 51 4 55 National Liberation Coalition 9 Democratic Revolutionary Party 114741 6 4 10 Labor and Agrarian Party 47775 1 0 1 Liberal Party 17712 0 1 1 Republican Party 8602 0 0 0 People's Party of Panama 4988 0 0 0 Nationalist Action Party 3572 0 0 0 Revolutionary Panameñista Party 2917 0 0 0 Democratic Worker's Party 1075 0 0 0 201382 7 5 12 Authentic Panameñista Party 3015 0 0 0 NohlenElections in the Americas : a data handbook / ed. by Dieter Nohlen, Vol. 1. [Oxford] [u.a.] : Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Pp.527. Aftermath Noriega had intended to declare Duque the winner regardless of the actual count. However, Duque knew that he had been soundly defeated and refused to go along. On 10 May, the president of the Electoral Tribunal read a statement signed by all three magistrates annulling the elections. The statement alluded to the fact that the great number of irregularities across the country made counting the votes impossible.Pérez, Orlando J. "Elections under crisis: background to Panama in the 1980s." Seligson, Mitchell A. and John A. Booth. 1995. Elections and democracy in Central America, revisited. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Pp. 133. The next day, Endara and his running mate Ford were badly beaten by a detachment of Dignity Battalions, a paramilitary group supporting Noriega.http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-05-11/news/8901240885_1_guillermo-endara-dignity-battalions-noriega-regime Panama Violence Spreads Thugs Attack 3 Anti-noriega Candidates Katz, Gregory May 11, 1989 South Florida Sun-Sentinel July 4, 2013 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20130704011221/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-05-11/news/8901240885_1_guillermo-endara-dignity-battalions-noriega-regime August 31, 2012https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/world/americas/30endara.html Guillermo Endara, Who Helped Lead Panama From Noriega to Democracy, Dies at 73 August 31, 2012 The New York Times Douglas Martin September 30, 2009 Endara was struck with an iron club and was briefly hospitalized, receiving eight stitches.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hfJRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Zm4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4927,3893446&dq=endara+stitches&hl=en Panama declares election result void; Endara hurt May 11, 1989 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 3, 2013 https://archive.today/20130103062620/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hfJRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Zm4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4927,3893446&dq=endara+stitches&hl=en live August 31, 2012 Images of the attack on Endara and Ford were carried by media around the world, and were credited with building public support for the US invasion that would soon follow.http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1107830.html https://web.archive.org/web/20140619121220/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1107830.html usurped June 19, 2014 Panama's Philosopher Pol;Ricardo Arias Calderon's Leap From Exiled Academic to Vice President Myra MacPherson Myra MacPherson January 30, 1990 The Washington Post HighBeam Research subscription August 31, 2012 http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20832533.html https://archive.today/20130103073838/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20832533.html usurped January 3, 2013 Guillermo Endara Davison, Phil October 2, 2009 The Independent HighBeam Research subscription August 31, 2012 The nullification decree coupled with the attack on Endara and Ford outraged Panamanians and the international community. In an emergency session on 17 May, the Organization of American States adopted a resolution condemning the regime for its actions.The May 7, 1989 Panamanian Elections. International Delegation Report. 1989. Pp. 17. (http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/electionreports/democracy/FinalReportPanama1989.pdf) Former US President Jimmy Carter, one of the election observers, was placed under brief house arrest by Noriega's forces to prevent him from speaking to the press. At a later press conference, he called for an international response to the stolen election, then addressed the Noriega administration directly, asking "Are you honest people, or are you thieves?"The History of Panama Robert C. Harding 2006 Greenwood Press 031333322X 112 On 31 August 1989, the Council of State dissolved the National Assembly, named a provisional government headed by ex-Attorney General Francisco Rodríguez, and announced that he would consider holding another election in six months.Dunkerley, James. 1994. The pacification of Central America: political change in the isthmus, 1987–1993. London: Verso. Pp. 35. The immediate events that triggered the invasion began on December 15, when Panama's hand-picked National Assembly declared Noriega the de jure head of state, giving him the title of Maximum Leader. Then the assembly, citing aggression against the Panamanian people, declared the republic in a state of war with the United States.Musicant, Ivan. 1990. The banana wars: a history of United States military intervention in Latin America from the Spanish–American War to the invasion of Panama. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Pp. 396. On 20 December, 24,000 US troops invaded Panama in Operation Just Cause, deposing Noriega. Endara had by this time taken refuge in the Panama Canal Zone, which was under US control. Though Endara had opposed US military action during his campaign, he accepted the presidency, stating later that, "morally, patriotically, civically I had no other choice". He was certified the winner of the election and inaugurated on a US military base on December 20. Ricardo Arias Calderón was inaugurated as first vice president, and Ford as second vice president.https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-06-mn-943-story.html Panama's 3-Party Rule Turns Into 3-Ring Circus Freed, Kenneth May 6, 1991 Los Angeles Times August 12, 2014 live https://web.archive.org/web/20140812084350/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-05-06/news/mn-943_1_political-party August 31, 2012 On 27 December, the Electoral Tribunal revoked the annulment of the general elections held on 7 May.Chronicle of parliamentary elections. Geneva: International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation, Inter-Parliamentary Union. Volume 24, 1990. Pp. 20. Working on voting returns of the May 1989 elections, on 23 February 1990, the tribunal confirmed the election of 58 of the 67 legislators, with 51 seats going to the ADOC coalition and only six to the pro-Noriega PRD.Country profile. Costa Rica, Panama (Economist Intelligence Unit), 1994–1995. Pp. 33. On 27 January 1991, by-elections were held for the nine seats of the Legislative Assembly which could not be filled at the May 1989 general elections. The PRD's victory in five of the seats deepened internal divisions in the government coalition.Chronicle of parliamentary elections. Geneva: International Centre for Parliamentary Documentation, Inter-Parliamentary Union. Volume 25, 1991. Pp. 19. References General Category:Elections in Panama Panama Category:Presidential elections in Panama Category:Annulled elections Category:Foreign involvement in regime change Category:May 1989 in North America