Pnma: The road to serfdom

This is how it begins, by the co-opting of the judiciary. What did Shakespeare say? Kill all the lawyers?

Panama’s Supreme Court, by a 5-4 party line vote, has blocked Electoral Prosecutor Gerardo Solís’s probe into whether the Moscoso administration illegally used the presidential secret fund to support Mireyista candidates in the recent election campaign. The court’s five Moscoso appointees did this by granting an amparo --- a hearing of a constitutional challenge coupled with an injunction against further action while the case is pending --- requested by Minister of the Presidency Mirna Pittí. Before the election Solís had advised that he would be coming by the ministry on May 11 to inspect its records.

The ruling is legally controversial, as prior to the Mireyistas taking control the high court had declined to hear constitutional challenges to electoral cases until they had run their course before the Electoral Tribunal. The Panamanian constitution gives the Electoral Tribunal exclusive jurisdiction over electoral cases, but once Mireya gained control of the court it grabbed control over the Electoral Tribunal’s consideration of the PRD’s move to oust legislator Carlos Afú --- who was accused of taking a bribe to approve the president’s Supreme Court nominees --- and sitting on the case long enough for the Mireyistas to maintain control over the legislature for the balance of Moscoso’s term. The swing votes by which the Afú matter was taken up by the high court came from magistrates whose positions on the court were allegedly procured by bribing Afú.