The gloves are off in the 90-day run-up to the May 5 elections with eight candidates vying to become president of Panama in what is widely expected to become a no-holds-barred contest.

On Saturday, February 2 the contenders hit the campaign trail early with the candidate of the Other Path Movement (MOCA) , Ricardo Lombana arriving at Merca Panamá at 7.30 am with his running mate, Michael Chen.

The second candidate for the Palacio de Las Garzas  Zulay Rodríguez launched her campaign in San Miguelito where  she also competes as a representative and mayor.

Free nomination candidate, Maribel Gordón, chose the Jesús de Nazaret community, in the district of Chilibre , north of the capital, as the setting for her launch. She was  accompanied by her running mate Richard Morales

 Martín Torrijos, nominated by the Popular Party, was expected to start, Sunday in Los Bohíos Alegres, hut, appeared Saturday walking in the eastern area of ​​the capital.

He visited the townships of Las Mañanitas and walked through the streets of San Joaquín, Pedregal, the neighborhood of Luis 'Matador' Tejada, a former soccer player who died last Sunday.

The launch of the the coalition of the Realizing Goals (RM) and Alianza parties,  was in Plaza Santa Ana,   where José Raúl Mulino, who must now take the presidential candidacy, said that he has been walking the country for years and that the People complain about the high cost of the basic basket.

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Present at the RM rally was the former director of the General Directorate of Revenue , Luis Cucalón, who had a measure of house arrest for the corruption of public servants to the detriment of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The former official had been sentenced to 96 months in prison.

However, the Judicial Branch, in a statement released last year, reported that in a previous hearing, October 23, 2023, was set as the end of the sentence.

The candidate of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), José Gabriel Carrizo, held a rally at the group's headquarters on Mexico Avenue, Calidonia district, referring to the message he has received in some sectors and has gone viral on social networks “you are not going.”

At the start of the campaign, he began to use the phrase to advantage “you are not going” against unemployment, medicines, and street closures.

“A few months ago many imagined that they had finished and destroyed our candidacy, and our party. But they were wrong. Here I am with more strength and energy to start our great electoral campaign with a single objective: to win the elections on May 5,”

Rómulo Roux candidate for the Alliance of Democratic Change (CD) and Panameñista, launched his campaign in  ​​Concepción, Bugaba, Chiriquí, sending the message that “they will govern the same for all provinces”, without the distinction between the interior and the capital. Roux was accompanied by his running mate and president of the Panameñista Party, José Isabel Blandon.

He said he shares the people’s indignation at seeing how a corrupt political system has damaged the country.

He concluded by inviting the population not to miss out on moving towards a better future: “That future begins today. It depends on all of us, on what together we do for our country.”

The candidate for free nomination, Melitón Arrocha, toured the district of Arraiján in Panama Oeste and is expected to go to Penonomé, in Coclé today.