2019 Panamanian General Election Sunday May 05,2019

The 2019 Panamanian General Election is scheduled to be held on Sunday May 05,2019 to elect

• next president
• 71 legislators and 
• hundreds of local government officials

Panama's 2.7 million voters are expected to vote the ruling Panamenista Party out of office in elections marked by widespread outrage over recent government corruption scandals

Centrist Laurentino Cortizo declared winner in presidential election

Democratic Revolutionary Change party candidate Laurentino "Nito" Cortizo, a businessman and former politician, won the presidency with 33 percent of the vote. He will take office on July 1.

The centrist candidate had a double-digit lead in most polls leading up to Sunday's vote, but the race ended up being much tighter than anticipated with the two frontrunners separated by less than two points.

Election tribunal magistrate Heriberto Arauz called it "a precedent in Panamanian election history," and the tribunal refrained from announcing Cortizo as president-elect until 23:40 local time, after more than 92 percent of polling station results had been processed.

Romulo Roux, the right-wing Democratic Change party candidate, ended up in a close second place with 31 percent of the vote. He refused to concede on election night, stating that his party await a further review of results.

Independent candidate Ricardo Lombana garnered 19 percent of the vote, far ahead of the four remaining candidates.