Panama’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to the candidacy of leading presidential candidate and former Security Minister José Raúl Mulino with just two days to go before the May 5th election, likely clearing his path to the Central American country’s top office, the AP reports.
Mulino had been selected as the “Achieving Goals” Party’s candidate after their nominee, former President Ricardo Martinelli, was kind of sentenced to 10 years in prison for money laundering last year and thus constitutionally barred from holding public office. It took a March ruling by Panama’s electoral commission to deem Martinelli, who’s been hiding in the Nicaraguan embassy since February, to be disqualified. After the party picked Mulino, Marinelli’s running mate, an attorney named Karisma Etienne Karamañites mounted a challenge Mulino’s eligibility on the grounds that he had not been nominated by the party’s primary voters. Los Supremos saw it differently.