GOVERNMENT
Panama is a representative democracy with three branches of government: executive and legislative branches elected by direct vote for 5-year terms, and an independently appointed judiciary. The executive branch includes a president and two vice presidents. The legislative branch consists of a 78-member unicameral National Assembly. The Constitution was changed in 2004, however, and beginning with national elections in 2009, the executive branch will have only one vice president, and the membership of the National Assembly was to be capped at 71 (subsequently changed to 74). The judicial branch is organized under a nine-member Supreme Court (each judge is appointed for a 10-year term) and includes all tribunals and municipal courts. An autonomous Electoral Tribunal supervises voter registration, the election process, and the activities of political parties. Anyone over the age of 18 may vote.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Martin TORRIJOS
First Vice President--Samuel LEWIS Navarro
Second Vice President--Rubén AROSEMENA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs--Samuel LEWIS Navarro
Ambassador to the United States--Federico António HUMBERT
Arias
Ambassador to the United Nations--Ricardo Alberto ARIAS
Ambassador to the Organization of American States—--Aristides
ROYO
Panama maintains an embassy in the United States at 2862 McGill
Terrace, NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel: 202-483-1407).
Type: Constitutional democracy.
Independence: November 3, 1903.
Constitution: October 11, 1972; amended 1983 and 1994 and reformed in 2004.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state), two vice presidents. Legislative--National Assembly (unicameral, 78 members reduced to 74 members for September 2009 elections). Judicial--Supreme Court.
Subdivisions: Nine provinces and five (Indigenous) territories.
Political parties: The Panamenista Party (formerly the Arnulfista Party (PA); Democratic Change (CD); National Liberal Republican Movement (MOLIRENA); the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD); Patriotic Union (UP).
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
