Torrijos wins Panamanian presidential election

Martin Torrijos, a candidate of New Fatherland Alliance, has won Panama's presidential election Sunday, said the electoral authorities.

According to the early results announced by the Electoral Tribunal, Torrijos scored 46 percent of the one-quarter votes counted. His major rival, former President Guillermo Endara of the Solidarity Party, only got 29 percent, ranking second.

The other two candidates, Jose Miguel Aleman of the Vision del Pais alliance, who runs for the ruling Arnulfist Party, and businessman Ricardo Martinelli of the Democratic Change ranked third and fourth respectively.

"Today is a new chapter in the country's history," said Torrijos in a telephone call to a justice of the Electoral Tribunal, who informed him of his victory.

The election, considered relatively clean by international observers, is the first presidential polls of the Central American country since the handover of the Panama Canal and the withdrawal of US troops in December 1999.

Torrijos, 40, is the son of late Gen. Omar Torrijos, who was Panama's de facto ruler from late 1960s to early 1980s and persuaded the United States to cede the Panama Canal to the tiny nation in 1977.

In his upcoming five-year term, Torrijos, who is due to be sworn in on Sept. 1, will preside over a canal expansion, which would allow more ships through the waterway and ease poverty in the country.

Profile: Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos

Torrijos will be sworn in on Sept. 1 for a five-year term. During his five-year term ahead, Torrijos will preside over a canal expansion, which will allow more ships through the waterway and ease poverty in the country. He pledged in his campaign platform to carry out reforms in the public finance and judicial systems while taking staunch actions against crime and corruption.

Born on July 18, 1963 in Panama City, Torrijos is son of the late Panama leader Gen. Omar Torrijos, who launched a military coup in 1968 and had ruled Panama since 1968 until he died in an air crash in 1981. Omar Torrijos signed with the United States the1977 treaty that opened the way for the transfer of the control ofthe Panama Canal.

Martin Torrijos moved to the United States at the age of 14 andspent most of his life there. He received master degrees in politics and economics in the US A&M University in 1987 and 1988.

He came back from the United States in 1992 and was appointed vice minister of interior and justice in 1994.

In 1999, Torrijos participated in the presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party, butwas defeated by the right-wing Arnulfist Party's presidential candidate Mireya Moscoso.

In August 1999, Torrijos was elected secretary-general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party.

Married with a US woman, Torrijos has two sons and a daughter.

Source: Xinhua