May 5: The General elections was held in Panama. A total of 2,757,823 voters elected 861 positions: President of the Republic, Vice President, 71 National Assembly members, 81 mayors, 679 electoral districts representatives, 20 Central American Parliament representatives and 9 Councilors for the city of Panama.
Saul Méndez, SUNTRACS General Secretary and Vice-President of BWI Latin America and Caribbean Region was a Presidential candidate for the Broad Front for Democracy (Frente Amplio por la Democracia, FAD). In addition to Méndez, other trade union leaders of SUNTRACS also ran as candidates for other positions.
The BWI organized a political mission to observe the elections. The mission was led by Dietmar Schaefers, Deputy President of BWI and Vice-Chair of IG-BAU-Germany. Other mission members included Steinar Krogstad from FELLESFORBUNDET-Norway, Raimundo Ribeiro SANTOS from SINTRAPAV – Brazil; Raimundoi Suzart, from Quimicos ABC-CUT-Brazil, Nilton Freitas, Regional Representative of BWI Latin America Region, Patrick Fonjallaz and Ernesto Marval from the BWI. The BWI mission observed several voting stations in Colon and Panama City.
Dietmar Schafers from IG-BAU, Germany leaded the BWI Electoral Mission in Panama.