Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama’s presidential elections in a landslide Sunday, taking office as the Central American nation carries out an ambitious project to expand the Panama Canal.
Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, had 61 percent of the votes against 37 percent for ruling party candidate Balbina Herrera, Panama’s Electoral Tribunal reported with 63 percent of the votes counted.
Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli, 57, the “indisputable winner” and said he had telephoned the candidate to inform him of his victory.
Martinelli, who owns Panama’s largest supermarket chain, said he would work for a national unity government because “that is what the country is counting on.”
“Tomorrow we will all be Panamamians and we will change this country so that it has a good health system, good education, good transportation and good security,” he said.