The Candidates
Priestley, George
As the presidential campaign took shape, two candidacies emerged from the broad coalition behind incumbent president Guillermo Endara: Mireya Moscoso de Gruber of the traditionalist Arnulfista...
...Early in the cam- paign, Pap6 Egor6 suffered internal divisions when many of its progressive members left the The Arnulfista Party remains the most important party after the PRD...
...Blades proposed a progressive social agenda but was not very different from the main contenders on economic and political issues...
...There are several reasons why his party did not do better...
...Equally important was the "soft," essentially anti- PRD, vote, which was bent on stopping Perez Balladares...
...In the final count, P6rez Balladares received 33.3% of the vote, and his party, the PRD, won 31 of 71 seats in the National Assembly...
...This vote oscillated between Blades and Moscoso de Gruber until the last weeks before the election when it settled on the latter after being negatively influenced by a series of events, including tthe attack s against the salsa singer...
...At the same time, he repeatedly refused to release allocated funds for social ser- vices and domestic investment, alleging that he had insufficient information about those pro- jects...
...So far it has decided to play loyal opposition...
...The polls had failed to accurately reflect the support that the Arnulfistas had in the interior provinces, and a relatively large pool of undecided voters seem to have been impressed and ers to imports...
...Blades, the musician and Hollywood star, aroused great hopes at the beginning of the campaign, but finished a disappointing third...
...military bases in exchange for greater access to U.S...
...His electoral campaign emphasized his honesty, frugali- ty and decisiveness, but despite a high-profile television cam- paign, his bid for the presidency fell far short...
...The Endara swayed by the tens of thousands of people the Arnulfistas mobi- lized in a rally two days before the elections...
...Mireya Moscoso de Gruber got 29.1%, and her Arnulfista Party, 14 legislative seats...
...markets...
...The Arnulfista Party remains the most important party after the PRD...
...As comptroller, Caries gladly dis- bursed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt service to the international financial institu- tions...
...Her surprising showing was due to several factors...
...As the presidential campaign took shape, two candidacies emerged from the broad coalition behind incumbent president Guillermo Endara: Mireya Moscoso de Gruber of the traditionalist Arnulfista Party led a coalition called the Alianza Democritica, and Ruben Dario Carries of the conservative Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement Party (MOLIRENA) led Cambio 94...
...Blades was also hurt when, during the last days of the election campaign, he came under sudden attack from the pro-government parties for hav- ing "Communist advisers" and for alleged cocaine use...
...A long-time manager of the Chase Manhattan Bank in Panama, Caries opposed the mil- itary governments since 1968, and was the only candidate who campaigned to retain the U.S...
...Minor candidates and parties split the remaining votes and assembly seats...
...Two major candidates built their campaigns around the widespread dissatisfaction with Endara: Ernesto "Toro" Perez Balladares of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD)-the eventual winnerled a coalition called Pueblo Unido, and salsa singer Rub4n Blades created his own party called PapA Egor6 ("Mother Earth" in the indigenous Embar6 language...
...party, accusing Blades of author- itarianism...
...Mireya Moscoso de Gruber, the 46-year-old widow of the late caudilo-and three-time presi- dent of Panama-Arnulfo Arias, received 30% of the vote, a solid 12 percentage points more than "any of the major polls had pro- jected...
...RubEn Dario Carles got 16.1% of the vote and his MOLIRENA Party, five seats...
...Rub6n Dario Carles, Endara's former comptroller, was consid- ered the candidate of the United States...
...Most controversial of all, the plan proposed a flexible labor code, which would abolish many protections won over years of trade-union struggle...
...So far it has decided to play loyal opposition rather than accept Perez Bal- ladares' offer to participate in a PRD-led government of national reconciliation and unity...
...RubLn Blades and Papa Egor6 came in third with 17.1% of the vote and six legislative seats...
Vol. 28 • September 1994 • No. 2
