Mulino achieved the triumph after being subjected to an intense campaign, in which an attempt was made to disqualify him.
José Raúl Mulino, candidate of the parties Realizing Metas and Alianza, became yesterday the elected president of the Republic of Panama, after obtaining 34.4% of the valid votes cast.
Mulino achieved the triumph after being subjected to an intense campaign, in which an attempt was made to disqualify him, as he took over former President Ricardo Martinelli.
“Mission dealt with. We are here because we have arrived, with the majority vote of the Panamanian people duel him to whom it hurts,” Mulino said in his speech to his supporters.
He said that “it is a date, perhaps, the most important of my life. It is a date where the greatest responsibility that Panamanians can have or feel, to lead the destinies of the Panamanian nation from 1 July to come to my shoulders and to my family.
He acknowledged that “it is a giant task in a country where the most important thing in this political campaign was to identify with that feeling and that cry of the irreducible majorities of the country who trusted our proposal, because they had hope of the gap in which the last ten years have put us.”
“To Ricardo Martinelli, friend, mission accomplished also Ricardo. When you invited me to be vice president, the truth is that I didn’t imagine this scenario, but it touched me and assumed it with enormous responsibility and humility.”
The elected president said: “The Panamanian people, the vast majority that is our vote, the one who needs the least, that is our strong vote and it is our political base and for the people we will work hard, tirelessly every day.”
Ricardo Lombana, the closest contender of José Raúl Mulino, obtained.
He explained that “yes well we will promote a pro-investment government, pro-private enterprise, we cannot forget those who are hungry, those who want a job, and those who need drinking water throughout the country, every day. They are very big challenges, but we will face them as they have to face with determination and leadership, which is what this country lacks.”
The politician said that once he assumes power as president of the Republic he will convene various sectors for a unity government, however, he made it clear that this unity government does not represent a distribution of posts.
“From July 1 I will build a government with the best people in this country for the different areas that need capable people, wherever they come from.”
He stressed: “It does not encourage me, despite everything they did to me in this campaign, a drop of revenge against anyone, nor against those who tried cowardly, with trickery, manipulations, blackmail, to twist the popular will and that a Supreme Court put the next president of the Republic.”
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He added: “He triumphed the people, triumphed the people with a broad voice, large of hundreds of thousands of votes who said, enough, enough already to carry revenge as the most important flag for government management. Here we are cornered and prostrate the product of ten years of shamelessness, the product of ten years of all kinds of corruption and all kinds of interference and political persecution, with rigged justice, with prosecutors in the drawer of the car. That fucking pod is over.’
“Walk it well, keep it right, the political persecution is over, the manipulation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office is over, the manipulation of judges and magistrates is over, from 1 July the keys to the lock that have had them imprisoned will be recovered, chasing, damaging reputations and families without the slightest shame.
All opponents of José Raúl Mulino recognized the triumph of the president-elect.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeered in Panamerica