Panama Voters Back Dictator’s Son as President

Martin Torrijos, the dictator’s son who pledged to strengthen democracy and national pride, celebrated a resounding victory Sunday in the first presidential election since U.S. troops handed the Panama Canal back more than four years ago.

The son of late strongman Gen. Omar Torrijos, the victor cheered his 47% showing as “the moment we’ve been anticipating for a very long time.” He vowed to build on the democracy that has taken root since the last of Panama’s military rulers, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, was deposed by a 1989 U.S. invasion.

Torrijos defeated former President Guillermo Endara, 67, a conservative who led this country of 2.8 million through five transformative years after the ouster of Noriega, who is serving a 30-year sentence in Florida on drug charges.

Endara was polling 29% of the presidential vote in early unofficial returns, and former Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Aleman of the incumbent Arnulfista Party was drawing about 20%. Millionaire retailer Ricardo Martinelli, a fourth contender, was taking 4% of the vote.

New Nation, the political alliance behind Torrijos and his Democratic Revolutionary Party, was also given a good chance of capturing a plurality of seats in the 78-member Legislative Assembly.

Panama enjoys what a diplomat here described as “incredibly strong and amicable” ties with Washington, a relationship that is likely to improve further under Torrijos, who has spent half his life in the United States, holds a degree from Texas A&M; and once managed a McDonald’s franchise in Chicago.

Despite morning deluges, voters thronged the polls. The better than 80% turnout reflected Panamanians’ keen involvement in political life in the democratic era.

Torrijos, 40, portrayed himself as a pro-market businessman who had made his own way despite his father’s clout and popularity as the leader who negotiated recovery of the canal in a 1977 treaty with U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The younger Torrijos has worked in consulting in the international trade sector, which has boomed since the canal reverted to Panamanian ownership on Dec. 31, 1999.

The new president, who takes office in September for a five-year term, is expected to direct the debate on expanding the canal to accommodate ever-larger container vessels. Torrijos has called the proposal, which could cost more than $5 billion and inflate the national debt, the most important issue the country has confronted in a century.

Torrijos will also have to pass judgment on an emerging trade pact with the United States, for which negotiations began just a week ago. His business experience and long-standing U.S. ties have made him a favorite of leading Wall Street brokers such as Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston, who describe him as having a market-friendly outlook. Torrijos has promised to reform social security while eschewing the populist spending of the current head of state, Mireya Moscoso.

Torrijos pledged to foster economic growth by attracting more foreign investment and extending credit to small business.

Although rejecting authoritarianism like that embraced by his father, who seized power in a 1968 coup, Torrijos often invoked the late dictator’s legacy while campaigning, describing him as “my hero.” Posters depicting the late general and crediting him with “recovering what belongs to us” were superimposed upon Martin’s image.

Moscoso, the widow of Arnulfo Arias -- who was elected president and deposed three times before his death in 1988 -- was constitutionally prohibited from seeking a second consecutive term and threw her support behind Aleman.