Bush Warns Panama Against Rigging Vote : U.S. Won’t Recognize Results of Fraudulent Balloting, President Says; Allied Support Asked

President Bush, renewing his opposition to the regime of Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega, predicted Tuesday that Panama’s presidential election will be marred by “massive” fraud and warned that the United States will not recognize the results of such balloting.

Bush urged U.S. allies in Europe and Latin America to demand free and fair elections in Panama. And, in a frankly worded message to Noriega and the Panamanian general’s figurehead presidential candidate, Carlos Duque, Bush said:

“Let me be clear--the United States will not recognize the results of a fraudulent election engineered simply to keep Noriega in power.”

Speech to Business Leaders

Bush, who has had little to say in recent months on Panama and the long-running but so far unsuccessful U.S. effort to oust Noriega, made his remarks in a speech to the Council of the Americas, a group of business leaders with interests in Latin America.

It was the first speech of his presidency devoted solely to Latin America, and it plunged his Administration back into the controversy over Panama five days before Sunday’s presidential election there. The United States has been seeking the removal of Noriega since he was indicted in this country last year on drug trafficking charges.

Bush also directed harsh words at the Soviet Union. He said it would be held accountable for any aid to leftist Salvadoran rebels supplied by Cuba and Nicaragua “and for progress toward peace in the region and democracy in Nicaragua.”

Bush already had extended economic sanctions against Panama, originally imposed by the Reagan Administration after Noriega was indicted.

The President said candidates allied with Noriega are trailing in public opinion polls by margins of 2 to 1. But, he said, “it is evident that the regime is ready to resort to massive election fraud in order to remain in power.

“The Noriega regime continues to threaten and intimidate Panamanians who believe in democracy,” he said. “It’s also attempting to limit the presence and freedom of action of international observers and to prevent journalists from reporting on the election process in Panama.”

Declaring that “the day of the dictator is over,” the President called on others to “speak out against election fraud in Panama. And that means the democracies of Europe--they ought to be speaking out about this--as well as nations in this hemisphere struggling to preserve the democratic systems they’ve fought so hard to put in place.”

Expanding on the President’s prediction of election fraud, Deputy White House Press Secretary Roman Popadiuk cited such behavior as manipulating voter lists to alter registration data, invalidating identification cards of supporters of the opposition and firing “hundreds” of government workers identified as supporters of the opposition.

Action Plan Unclear

Asked what steps the United States would take if Bush’s prediction of fraud is borne out, B. Jay Cooper, another deputy press secretary, said: “We have to wait for the election before we’ll be specific on what we would do after the election.”

The United States has favored sending a team of observers to Panama for the balloting, but negotiators have not been able to reach an agreement with Noriega over the size or official standing of the delegation. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford have made plans to arrive there later this week as part of the observer team.

Focusing elsewhere in the region, Bush called on the Soviet Union “to end Soviet bloc support for the Nicaraguan assault on regional democracy.”

He said that the United States ended military assistance to the Contras, who oppose Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government, two years ago but that the Soviets are shipping about $500-million worth of military aid to the Sandinistas each year. He made no mention of the agreement he recently reached with Congress to send $49.8 million in non-lethal assistance to the rebels.

He also accused the Sandinistas of imposing restrictive election and press laws leading up to elections scheduled for next February.

‘Stacked Deck’

“The result is a stacked deck against the opposition and stacked rules of the game,” he said.

Cuba and Nicaragua have stepped up their flow of weapons to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the U.S.-supported government of El Salvador, Bush charged.

He said he expects the Salvadoran ruling party, the Nationalist Republican Alliance, “to exercise its political power responsibly.” Some of the leaders of the rightist organization, which was victorious in March’s presidential election, have been accused of directing death-squad attacks.

Bush also congratulated Gen. Andres Rodriguez, who was elected president of Paraguay on Monday after 35 years of rule by dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and said, “This democratic opening must continue.”