The lawyer  Jorge Hernán Rubio has filed an appeal to revoke the decision of the fifth electoral judge,  Elvia Rengifo, who dismissed the challenges to the two candidates for elected office of former President  Ricardo Martinelli.

Rubio, who is a candidate for deputy in the circuit 8-7, insists that Martinelli does not meet the minimum residence time to aspire to the positions of mayor of Panama  City and deputy of 8-8.

"Mr. Martinelli does not meet and does not meet the basic requirements to be nominated and aspire to a popular office, proof of this is that he  voluntarily left  the Panamanian territory on January 28, 2015, and was returned forcibly on June 11, 2018, without the faintest minimum intention of returning, and was extradited as a rebel to the Republic of Panama, "said Rubio in the appeal t presented on Tuesday April 16 by his attorney José Luis Carrera .

Rubio points out that the obligation to reside in the electoral district "is not a whim, but is born of desire, the intention of the legislator that there is contact between the candidate and the voter at least one year before."

In her ruling, Judge Rengifo said that Martinelli's electoral residence  "meets the constitutional and legal requirements " to aspire to a deputy, on the grounds that the residence of the ex-president who is being held in El Renacer prison, while being tried. for illegal wiretapping, established in the electoral roll does not show "any update since 1993".

In an 11-page document, the plaintiff says Ricardo Martinelli cannot be nominated, much less be a candidate to the position of popular election in the upcoming elections.

T "the controversy does not address whether Ricardo Martinelli appears as a citizen

in the voter registry, whether or not he can exercise his vote in the elections of May 5 of this year." The subject that is discussed is whether a person who evidently does not reside in the constituency

and much less in the electoral circuit for which he or she is being nominated, may or may not be nominated. even worse, being a candidate for a popular election, when he does not meet, the requirements that are contemplated in both the Law and the Constitution.