Referendum on the Expansion of the Panama Canal

Panamanians have been voting today on whether or not to expand the Panama Canal. This would be the first such expansion in the Canal’s history, and would allow larger ships to go through the waterway.

Voting has been very peaceful and efficient. Most people I saw in polling centers this morning seemed to be supporting the expansion. However, turnout seems to be very low thus far. Perhaps the expansion of the Canal is an issue that doesn’t interest most of the population; while the Canal is one of Panama’s primary resources, I suspect many people find it a somewhat abstract problem. (40% of the population here lives in poverty… voting on a US$ 5.25 billion project may be a bit of a stretch.)

In any case, I’ll be blogging today from the Atlapa Convention Center, where the unofficial (and later, official) results will be announced. So barring any issues that may call me away from my blogging post (or any wireless access issues), I plan to post the results here, live.

4:00 PM – Voting is now supposed to be closed. We are waiting for the magistrates to occupy their posts.

4:12 PM – The National Anthem is playing. The magistrates are on stage.

4:19 PM – Magistrate Valdés is announcing that the unofficial results announcement system will be opened at 4:30 PM. Results will be announced as polling centers are tallied. The magistrate is saying that voting seems to be light.

4:29 PM – Magistrate Valdés: the system is about to be opened. We are waiting to see what the first polling center to be tallied will be.

4:31 PM – First results are in. “Yes” is ahead. Voting is light, so results will be tallied faster.

4:37 PM – “Yes” is ahead everywhere, except for Colón province. This is interesting; Colón is one of the terminal points of the Panama Canal. Colón is also the province with the highest turnout yet.

4:42 PM – “Yes” is now ahead everywhere, although in some provinces it’s close (~~Colón and~~ the Ngobe Buglé territory).

4:52 PM – 5% of the votes have been tallied thus far. “Yes” is ahead, 80.14% to 19.86%.

4:58 PM – Turnout nationwide is less than 40% thus far. Magistrate Valdés mentioned when tallying started that the last referendum held in Panama (1998) had a voter turnout rate of over 60%. However, the issue being voted on at that time was much more politically charged (altering the Constitution to allow the then president to run for reelection).

5:03 PM – 10% of the votes have now been tallied. “Yes” is ahead, 79.59% to 20.45%

5:38 PM – 32% of votes have been tallied. Data has been pretty consistent for some time now: 80% “Yes”, 20% “No”, with 40% voter turnout.

6:05 PM – 51% of votes have been tallied. Data is now 79% “Yes”, 21% “No”. The trend now seems irreversible.

6:15 PM – Magistrates are back on stage. Seems like they’re about to make an announcement.

6:25 PM – Magistrate Valdés is on the phone with President Torrijos. The election is called unofficially: the Panama Canal will be expanded. The magistrate is now doing a post-mortem: data from this year’s referendum has been tallied much faster than in the 1998 referendum. This may be in part because of the fact that turnout is lower, but I suspect that major improvements in Panama’s telecommunications infrastructure may have had an important effect.

This wraps up my coverage of the 2006 referendum.