Ricardo Martinelli elected Panama new president

PANAMA CITY: Opposition party leader, Ricardo Martinelli has won the presidential election of Panama, a Latin American country, breaking the tradition of left-wing parties winning polls in the country.

Ricardo Martinelli securing 60.63 percent votes against 36.85 percent defeated his rival from the ruling Revolutionary Democratic Party candidate Balbina Herrera.

Panama's Electoral Tribunal says conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli has won the Central American nation's presidential elections.

Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla says that with 44 percent of the votes counted Martinelli is the ``indisputable winner'' of Sunday's voting. Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, topped former Housing Minister Balbina Herrera of Panama's governing coalition, which is led by the Democratic Revolutionary Party.

The people here welcoming the victory of a businessman hoped that he could put the country’s economy on rail to development and prosperity. link...