politics

Varela victorious in Panameñista primary

Juan Carlos Varela received almost 60 percent of the votes cast on Sunday.

David Mesa/LA PRENSA

election cheer:Supporters of Alberto Vallarino urge on their candidate, but their support was not enough as he ended up losing the Panameñista party presidential nomination to Juan Carlos Varela.1054979

According to unofficial results, Juan Carlos Varela won the Panameñista party presidential nomination in a primary held yesterday.

Varela was declared the winner in a press conference last night. The official results of the primary are expected to be released today.

According to estimates, Varela captured almost 60 percent of the votes, substantially more than his closet rival, Alberto Vallarino, who had 34 percent of the vote. Numerous other candidates captured fractional shares of the votes cast.

The primary is expected to go a long way toward clarifying the picture of the country's presidential race.

The opposition parties, which appear to need to form a coalition to defeat the incumbent Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD).

While the most popular candidate according to polls has been Ricardo Martinelli of the Cambio Democrático party, the Panameñista party is the largest of the opposition parties, with about 270,000 members.

Martinelli is not expected to face any serious opposition when his party conducts its primary in August.

It is likely that Martinelli, Varela and Vanguardia Moral de la Patria candidate Guillermo Endara will have to come to some sort of an agreement in order to collect enough votes to defeat whichever PRD candidate emerges from that party's primary. That is likely to be either former Ministra de Vivienda Balbina Herrera or Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro.