Former President Ricardo Martinelli’s battle to run for election on May 5  hit another stumbling block on Wednesday, April 24 ,when-when the magistrates of  the Electoral Tribunal (TE)declared  "unproven" the incident of challenges filed by Martinelli’s lawyer Alma Cortés,  against Judges Alfredo Juncá and Eduardo Valdés Escoffery, within the process of appealing the dismissal of the challenge against Martinelli’s the candidacies for mayor of Panama and deputy of the circuit 8-8

Through two edicts, the TE said that the magistrates Heriberto Araúz, Yara Campo and Myrtha Varela de Durán dismissed Martinelli's appeal seeking that judges Juncá and Valdés Escoffery declare themselves unable to hear the appeal against the ruling. of the fifth electoral judge, Elvia Rengifo, who on April 11 declared the candidacies of Martinelli legal.

The appeal was filed by Jorge Hernán Rubio, candidate for deputy for the Partido Popular in circuit 8-7, and by attorney Daniel Ramírez, who allege that the ex-ruler does not comply with the time of residence in the country, as established in Article No. 291 of the Electoral Code, which states that to be a candidate you must be a resident in the district at least one year before the date of the election. Martinelli was jailed in Miami on June 12, 2017, while extradition proceedings were underway, and has been in El Renacer Prison since his involuntary return to Panama on June 11 last year.