The Yellow Jackets are in Power

I just thought I should at least MENTION the fact that Panama elected a new president. His name is Juan Carlos Varela. Fun fact: He’s an alumnus of Georgia Tech, how ‘bout that? Woo-hoo, ACC wins again, right?

The Panamanian presidential race was expected to be tight, with the three major competitors consisting of a candidate from the party currently controlling the presidency and two opposition party candidates that were making a strong showing in the polls leading up to the elections on May 4^th.

Varela, the immediate past Panamanian vice-president who broke with the governing party in order to field his own candidacy for the presidency, ended up winning the election.

But really I didn’t want to talk about the politics of the elections. I wanted to talk about actual Election DAY. Because that was a trip.

I’ve never been in a foreign country during their elections, so this was a first for me. Leading up to the elections, I noticed increased security at the Tribunal Electoral next to my house. (The Tribunal is the governing body officially responsible for counting the votes during elections.) Also, a couple of presidential candidates helicoptered out to my site in Darien to make short speeches to the voters. I found this pretty surprising, since Darien is so rural and not that many people live out here compared to in the other provinces.

Anyway, so the day before Election Day, I went to go hang out at one of my fellow teachers’ house. The topic of conversation led to the elections, and he mentioned to me that during elections, the different political parties would no doubt be handing out free food.

Free food? That’s all I need to hear.

I notified a couple of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers of this information, and we made plans that lunch on election day would be on some Panamanian political entity—we’re getting this free food! And thus, I experience the Panamanian democratic process.

I the States, voting is a very private matter. You go to your assigned voting location in your precinct (or receive your ballot in the mail in the case of absentees), you quietly wait in line, then you secretly fill out and submit your ballot. When you finish voting, you leave and go back home/back to work/back to your life as previously scheduled.

This does not hold true for Panamanians on their Election Day.

As my roommate and I approached the school (my town’s polling location), I saw a lot of people milling about, sort of in block-party fashion. We made a bee-line for the first food that we saw being handed out—arroz con pollo and beef—not bad. This food was being handed out by one of the opposition parties, but being that we are gringos and we can’t vote, we didn’t even care who was handing out the food—IT WAS FOOD!

Afterward, we milled about and people watched. It’s amazing how, here in Panama, voters wear their political parties like sports teams. Navarro/Democratic Revolution Party supporters were decked out from head to toe in blue and red, with matching ball caps and vests and everything. Varela/Panmeñista party supporters wore what can best be described as purple softball jerseys with their candidate’s name printed on the back. José Domingo/Democratic Change party supporters had on their José Domingo SWAG, coordinating from their shoes to their hates in the pink and green that you see on José Domingo’s campaign propaganda. It seemed that every vehicle, whether a personal vehicle, public transportation or a commercial vehicle—was sporting a flag supporting one of the major three candidates. Voting this day was not a secret event—people flaunt it as obviously as they can!

After milling about to say hi to some of the people that were hanging out at the polls, my friends and I decided that we were hungry again. Time to have a taste of the gastronomic offerings of another political party! More rice and beef from the Democratic Change party. Pretty delicious if I do say so myself. They also gave us free, cold juices to wash it down.

After playing a short came of HORSE involving our plastic bottles and the garbage cans at the school, we decided to head on home and await the news of which candidate would be Panama’s next political leader. That night around six or seven we found out that Varela won, and thus began the noise in the streets. Varela supporters drove up and down main street honking their horns and screaming in their excitement that Varela had won. I fell asleep that night listening to the sound of spontaneous celebrations in the street.

I was excited that I had the opportunity to really observe the democratic process outside of my home country. It was also a great opportunity to share with Panamanians about how Election Day differs in the United States (voice of Phoebe from The Magic School Bus: In my OLD school. . .)

In other news, shout out to the visitors I will have coming soon! Shelby’s coming later this week and my dad is coming into possession of a passport and has plans to come visit Panama (yay!). My neighbor keeps asking when my dad is coming, so that needs to happen ASAP.

Much love to everyone in the States! Abrazos!