leading candidate fails to win 50 per cent of the vote. President Torrijos only obtained 47.3 per cent; Moscoso won in 1999 with 44.8 per cent; and Ernesto Pérez Balladares won in 1994 with 33 per cent. Another set of proposals, already being discussed in the legislature as part of a constitutional reform package, is to limit the campaign period and reduce the period of transition from four to two months. A third issue, and one that has received a lot of public attention, is establishing ceilings on campaign donations and requiring disclosure of campaign funding sources. A previous electoral reform commission discussed the issue, but only one party supported a proposal to require parties to disclose the size and sources of donations. The text that the legislature eventually approved only requires parties to present accounts to the electoral court in ‘a confidential manner’. The number of electoral irregularities denounced to the prosecutor responsible underscored the need for reform. There are currently 1,186 cases under investigation and, while the majority are related to voter fraud (chiefly, falsely registered addresses), a number are related to campaign finance. Several legislators have been accused of misusing public or private funds in their re-election bids, for instance by handing out scholarships, supermarket vouchers and cheques in exchange for votes. One of the biggest scandals involved legislator Haydée Milanés in the province of Darién who was found guilty of channelling US $370,000 of government funds through 28 bank accounts into her re-election campaign. The case was widely publicised and Milanés eventually went on hunger strike in protest at the accusations.
Monitoring the Inter-American Convention against Corruption Within the framework of the monitoring mechanism provided by the Organization of American States (OAS) to oversee the
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implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (IACAC), civil society organisations identified shortcomings in Panama’s compliance with the provisions of the convention. These failings were echoed by the OAS committee of experts. In February 2004 civil society organisations presented an alternative report to the government on the state of compliance with the convention at a hearing with the OAS panel of experts. Civil society organisations acknowledged the advances made by the current government, spoke of difficulties in implementing the IACAC and issued recommendations. Among the positive developments mentioned was the adoption in July 2001 of reforms to the penal and judicial code and new norms to prevent corruption. There was also agreement between civil society and the experts about obstacles to fighting corruption. First, in terms of access to information, the committee of experts strongly recommended that Panama revise and modify the decree regulating the law on transparency (see above). Second, there are problems with the national anticorruption directorate, which was created by executive decree in 1999 but has never been regulated through secondary legislation. The directorate is coordinated by an interim director and does not have national reach. Third, concerns were expressed about the regulations for financial disclosure by public officials, since there is little evidence that they are being implemented efficiently. Both civil society organisations and the panel of experts agreed in recommending a number of actions, including: strengthening the implementation of laws and enforcement systems with regards to conflicts of interest in order to underpin a practical and effective system of public ethics; creating and establishing mechanisms for publicising asset declarations (of income, debt and assets); and carrying out a full evaluation of the powers currently in the hands of the
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