BLACKMAIL and threats have become part of what should be a sober and considered review by Panama lawmakers of the two candidates whose names have been put forward to replace two retiring Supreme Court Judges.

The opinion comes from former  president Ernesto Pérez Balladares  who spoke to media on Thursday, December 21 a day on which many opposition deputies failed  to put in an appearance at the National Assembly where they were to vet Ana Lucrecia Tovar and

Zuleyka Moore for their role as magistrates of the Court. The PRD Balladares' own party has instructed its Assembly caucus to reject the nominees, sight unseen.

Balladares said that the way judges are chosen has to be modified.

If "clientelism"  rules negotiations will continue in the face of money or threats until the deputies comply with the purposes of the Executive, he said.

The current problem is not the candidates since he considers that they are capable people, but how the candidates are chosen.

He said that maybe we should add more filters for the election, which includes the participation of lawyers' associations and that the power must be taken away from the President of the Republic, to make his own uninhibited picks.