Ex-president Ricardo Martinelli, in El Renacer prison awaiting trial for illegal wiretapping, while in office with the prosecution calling for a 21- jail term has withdrawn his bid to run as an independent candidate for Mayor of Panama with self-proclaimed “sexual buffalo” Sergio  Garcia Gálvez.as his running mate.

He has been denied bail on five occasions in the US and Panama and seems finally to have had a reality check after his political team picked up a little more than 45000  signatures, to support his run.

He sent a note to the Electoral Tribunal (TE) , on January 11, that he was withdrawing from the candidacy along with his deputy, Sergio Chello Galvez "We are convinced that Panama needs to wake up again, and that is achieved by consolidating an electoral force that represents the Democratic Change party together with its ally the Alliance party," Martinelli said in the note. 

"We do not want to end, without first thanking the more than 46,000 Panamanians who signed our books with force and zeal, thank you," he added.