From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: PANAMA: REFERENDUM REBUKES ENDARA
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 09:15:09 GMT

/** reg.panama: 30.0 **/
** Topic: PANAMA: REFERENDUM RESULTS SIGNAL D **
** Written  5:52 pm  Dec  5, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:reg.panama **
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: PANAMA: REFERENDUM RESULTS SIGNAL D

/* Written 12:13 am  Nov 19, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in
igc:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: PANAMA: REFERENDUM RESULTS SIGNAL DEFEAT FOR ENDARA
GOVERNMENT

panama city, nov 16 (ips-david carrasco) -- the overwhelming 'no'
vote at sunday's national referendum on 58 constitutional reforms
signals a clear defeat for the beleaguered government of president
guillermo endara, according to political analysts here.

following the results of sunday's vote, panama's opposition
parties are using their advantage to press for the formation of a
national constitutent assembly.

hernan rubio, leader of the national front for the 'no' vote,
(freno), said president guillermo endara's government and the
opposition christian democrats (pdc), who urged the electorate to
vote 'yes' to the reforms, had lost because they tried to ''sell a
bad product'' to the panamanian people.

the reforms, approved by the ruling coalition and the pdc,
included a proposal to abolish the army which was firmly rejected
by voters.

rubio described the reforms as ''anti-democratic'' and said six of
the 58 proposals included in the referendum constituted
substantial changes to the country's 1972 constitution.

according to the electoral tribunal, preliminary voting results
showed the ''no'' vote leading by a two-to-one margin.

however, 60 percent of panama's 1.4 million registered voters
stayed away from the ballot boxes, as forecast by several polls
taken prior to the referendum.

the secretary of the opposition revolutionary democratic party
(prd), ernesto perez, said sunday's results had safeguarded the
nation's identity and dignity.

''the political reality of today is very different from what it
was last week, when the government insisted that nothing would
change with an unfasvourable result,'' he said.

perez, whose party advocates the creation of a national
constituent assembly and institutional changes, predicted that
panama's nationalist groups would ''overwhlmingly defeat the
government and its christian democrat allies in the 1994 general
elections.''

according to prd leaders, the high abstention rate at sunday's
referendum was clear proof that the government's proposed reforms
were completely divorced from the everyday needs of ordinary
people.

the christian democrat leader, ricardo arias, who was dismissed
from the government by endara in april 1991, did not hide his
consternation at the results and criticised the lack of social
content in the government's economic programme.

he said ''nobody can claim victory'' in the wake of the referendum
and emphasised that sunday's vote ''is a clamour that must be
heard.'' (more/ips)
----

panama: referendum (2)

although president endara accepted the triumph of the ''no'' vote
and expressed concern at the high abstention rate, he said his
government might make another attempt to modify the constitution,
but without altering the constitutional order.

endara, whose popularity rating is at an all-time low of 7
percent, also appears to be increasingly isolated from groups
within his own party, who considered it ''political suicide'' to
introduce some reforms proposed by the christian democrats.

however, neither panamanian political groups nor the 550 local and
international observers monitoring the election have so far
questioned the final results of the referendum, though
irregularities were discovered in some voting registers.

political analysts here agree that sunday's vote represents a
clear defeat for endara's government, which took power in december
1989 following the united states military invasion which ousted
the former panamanian leader, general manuel noriega.
(ends/ips/trd-sp/dc/cs/cg/92)
----
** End of text from cdp:reg.panama **

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