Court disqualifies Martinelli's candidacy due to a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering received last year.
Panama's electoral court annulled the candidacy of former president Ricardo Martinelli in the presidential elections scheduled for May.
The decision, announced Monday night by the organization's president, Alfredo Junca, appears to end Martinelli's re-election hopes. It comes a month after the former leader lost a bid to avoid a prison sentence for corruption and sought asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy.
Martinelli was president from 2009 to 2014. Last year he was convicted of using stolen public money to buy a stake in a publishing house. The 71-year-old supermarket magnate was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and a $19 million fine.
Last month, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal against his sentence. Martinelli criticized that ruling as an “illegal last-minute measure” to remove him from the presidential race.
The formalization of his conviction allowed the Electoral Court to annul his candidacy. Panama's Constitution prohibits anyone sentenced to five years or more for a crime from holding elected office.
Before the annulment, most polls had positioned Martinelli as the favorite to win May's election. His running mate, former Foreign Minister José Raúl Mulino, was authorized by the court to remain alone on the ballot as a presidential candidate.
Martinelli, who was also disqualified from running for a legislative seat, denied any wrongdoing and maintains that he is a victim of political persecution.
Martinelli, a millionaire businessman when he became president, has been investigated for multiple corruption scandals since leaving office.
In 2021 he was acquitted of charges of espionage and embezzlement of public funds.
He faces a separate trial, scheduled for after the May 5 elections, for alleged bribe payments during his presidency by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht for public works projects in Panama.
Martinelli, a populist who oversaw a period of major infrastructure projects, including the construction of the capital's first metro line, is the first former president convicted of a crime in Panama.
Last year, the U.S. government banned Martinelli and his immediate family from entering the country, based on what it called their involvement in “significant” corruption.
