The president is elected by popular vote for a single five-year term and cannot serve a second consecutive term. In May 2019, Laurentino Cortizo of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) was elected president. Organization of American States (OAS) election monitors described the contest as orderly, and a peaceful transition took place that July.

Members of the 71-seat unicameral legislature, the National Assembly, are elected for five-year terms. The 2019 elections were held concurrently with the presidential race and local contests. The PRD won 35 seats, while Democratic Change (CD) won 18, the Panameñista Party (PP) won 8, and the United for Change alliance (MOLIRENA) won 5. Another 5 seats went to independents.

The country’s electoral framework is generally fair and impartially implemented. The Electoral Tribunal (TE) is responsible for presiding over a multistakeholder commission that reviews the electoral code after each election and submits reform proposals to the National Assembly.

In October 2021, the National Assembly approved several electoral-code reforms, including reducing the statute of limitations for election-related crimes and removing articles requiring gender parity in party primaries. The reforms—some of which were introduced by legislators without consulting the TE—were widely condemned by civil society organizations, which said that the changes reduced electoral transparency and accountability. Three lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the reforms, including one filed by the TE’s magistrates, were presented to the CSJ in December 2021. The lawsuits were ongoing as of the end of 2023.

The electoral code was changed twice in 2023, with the National Assembly amending it in February and again in October; the October amendments addressed the distribution of National Assembly seats.

Political parties are free to form and compete in Panama’s multiparty system, and since the 2014 elections, candidates have also been able to register as independents. Nine political parties will be participating in the 2024 general elections.

Elections are competitive in practice, and orderly transfers of power between rival parties have been the norm since the end of de facto military rule in 1989.

Voters and candidates are generally free from undue interference by groups outside the political system. However, the threat posed by improper donations offered by drug traffickers and other powerful interests remains a concern, especially given regulatory gaps in campaign financing.

The law does not limit the political rights of any segment of the citizen population. Though advocacy organizations have campaigned to improve women’s representation in elected office, it remains low. In the 2019 election, only 22.5 percent of National Assembly seats went to women. That election also saw the first woman from the Guna Indigenous group take her seat.

The constitution establishes five Indigenous territories—three at the provincial level and two at the municipal level—and these are duly represented in the system of constituencies for the National Assembly, but the interests of Indigenous people, who make up about 11 percent of the population, remain inadequately addressed by the political system.

There are no legal limitations for LGBT+ people to advocate their rights or run for office.

The elected government and legislature generally determine and implement laws and policies without interference, though evidence of official corruption has raised concerns about the possibility that unelected entities could unduly influence governance.

Safeguards against official corruption are relatively weak and ineffective, due in part to irregular application of laws and a lack of resources for the judicial system. Critics in civil society describe a pattern of unresolved corruption investigations resulting in impunity, a dynamic reinforced by scandals and turnover in the Prosecutor General’s Office in recent years.

Investigations have revealed extensive corruption in several presidential administrations. Former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, along with former senior officials, are implicated in the Odebrecht bribery case, which stems from a corruption scandal involving the Brazilian construction firm. In September 2023, a court scheduled a trial related to that affair for 25 defendants, including Martinelli and Varela, for July 2024. Also in September 2023, the state separately sued the former presidents over their alleged involvement.

In 2022, a US court convicted Martinelli’s two sons of conspiring to receive bribes from Odebrecht, allegedly for their father. But in August 2023, they were sworn in as alternate deputies to the Central American Parliament, giving them some level of legal immunity.

In July 2023, Ricardo Martinelli was convicted of money laundering, receiving a 10-and-a-half year prison term and a fine. Prosecutors had accused Martinelli of participating in a scheme in which a group of companies, which themselves had won government contracts, used a front to acquire a newspaper publisher. An appeal was pending as of December.

The law provides mechanisms for public access to government information. A transparency law was introduced in 2002, and the Varela administration adopted an open-data policy, instructing public institutions to make data accessible to the public in clear, open, and machine-readable formats.

In 2023, the government presented a bill to replace the 2002 law. In September, as the bill was still being considered, the Panamanian chapter of Transparency International criticized the bill, saying it would represent a backward step in transparency.

News consumers have access to a wide variety of private media outlets that present a range of views, but the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press is not consistently upheld. Journalists sometimes face harassment and intimidation for their work. Libel is both a civil and a criminal offense, while defamation and insult have also been defined in the criminal code. Such cases are often filed against journalists and media outlets.

Independent, critical journalists and outlets reportedly face editorial pressure from the government, and some journalists have experienced harassment when covering stories and opinions unfavorable to the government.

In June 2023, a civil judge denied former president Ernesto Pérez Balladares compensation in a case against La Prensa. The former president sued in 2012 after the newspaper reported that he transferred a large sum of money using a foreign bank account.

The constitution recognizes Roman Catholicism as the majority religion and requires general “respect for Christian morality and public order,” but freedom of religion is otherwise guaranteed and broadly upheld in practice. Catholic religious instruction is offered but not mandatory in public schools.

The government generally honors academic freedom, and schools are free from political indoctrination.

Private discussion is free and vibrant, and use of social media platforms for the expression of personal views, including views on political or social issues, is not restricted.

Freedom of assembly is generally respected, and peaceful demonstrations are common, though protests that block roads and highways often result in arrests and altercations with police.

Major protests against a 20-year copper mining concession began in October 2023, with opponents saying that winning mining firm, First Quantum Minerals, disproportionally benefited from the speedily drafted agreement and that its operations would be environmentally harmful. Demonstrators blocked major roads for several weeks, and authorities clashed with protesters on some occasions. Two protesters were shot and killed by a man trying to remove a roadblock in early November. The Supreme Court ruled the concession unconstitutional in late November.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate freely, but some activists—particularly those focused on environmental issues and Indigenous rights—have complained of harassment and intimidation, including through lawsuits by private companies.

The law generally protects workers’ rights to unionize, bargain collectively, and engage in legal, peaceful strikes. However, enforcement of labor protections is inadequate, and labor-related protests frequently feature clashes between demonstrators and police. Public employees are allowed to form associations to engage in collective bargaining and strike activities, but their rights have historically been weaker when compared to those of unions.

The country’s judicial system is plagued by corruption and inefficiency. Public disagreements between the Prosecutor General’s Office and judges over rulings that impeded major corruption cases in recent years have raised doubts about whether such cases would be heard impartially. The Integrity and Transparency Tribunal, which prosecutes officials who are accused of misconduct, became operational in April 2023.

Due process is constitutionally guaranteed but inconsistently upheld in practice. The justice system features extensive use of lengthy pretrial detention.

The country is free from major threats to physical security such as war and insurgencies. However, police have been accused of beatings and other forms of excessive force, including while dispersing protests. The prison system is marked by overcrowding, poor health conditions, a lack of security, and widespread contraband smuggling.

The illegal drug trade and related criminal violence remain problems. Panama’s homicide rate stood at 11.5 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, 0.2 percent higher than in 2022.

Discrimination based on gender, race, and other such categories is prohibited by law, but sexual orientation and gender identity are not covered. Members of ethnic and racial minority groups—including Indigenous people, Panamanians of African descent, and certain immigrant groups—face some discrimination in practice. Indigenous communities enjoy a significant degree of autonomy and self-government, but many Indigenous people live in poverty and lack equal access to basic services. An influx of migrants and asylum seekers from Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries in the region has stoked anti-immigrant sentiment in recent years.

The number of migrants crossing the Darién Gap, on the border between Panama and Colombia, reached a record high in 2023. A record 520,000 people traveled via the Darién Gap in 2023, compared to 248,000 in 2022. Some 63.2 percent of travelers in 2023 were Venezuelans seeking to escape overlapping social and economic crises. Both local and international human rights groups have called on the government to do more to protect migrants, who are frequently subjected to physical and sexual violence by criminal groups that control the Darién Gap.

The government consistently sought to reduce the flow of migrants through the Darién Gap in 2023. In April, the Panamanian, Colombian, and US governments launched a campaign meant to deter travel via the gap, with a particular focus on smuggling activity. In June, Panamanian police were deployed at the border with Colombia to address smuggling activity. In August, Panama’s government launched a campaign meant to reduce travel. In September, authorities said they would stop providing assistance and remove checkpoints at two border communities, more frequently deport people with criminal records, and offer more repatriation flights.

The government generally respects freedom of foreign travel and internal movement, including the freedom to change one’s place of residence, employment, or education.

Individuals can own private property and establish businesses freely under the law, but there are some practical impediments to defending property rights and operating businesses, including corruption and interference from organized crime.

Indigenous groups have substantial land rights under the law, though implementation has been problematic. Such groups have long protested the encroachment of illegal settlers on their lands, government delays in the formal demarcation of collective land, and large-scale development projects that proceed despite dissent within Indigenous communities.

Personal social freedoms are largely unrestricted. However, domestic violence is a concern. Abortion is permitted in cases of rape or incest or to preserve the life or health of the woman, though there are significant procedural obstacles as well as potential penalties for abortions that do not meet the legal standard.

The family code and Law 61 of 2015 disallow same-sex marriage. In February 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of that ban. In March, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a statement calling on Panama and other countries in the Americas to allow same-sex marriage. In May, a chamber of Panama’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition from a same-sex couple, citing the full court’s ruling.

Transgender Panamanians can change their gender identity on identification documents, but the process is protracted and is not standardized.

In May 2023, the country’s ombudsman created National Observatory of Human Rights of the LGBTIQ+ Population in Panama to monitor issues facing LGBT+ people in the country.

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor remains a serious problem despite some government efforts to combat it. Both Panamanian and migrant workers in certain sectors—including the agricultural sector, where many workers are Indigenous people—are subject to exploitative working conditions. Enforcement of basic labor protections is weak in rural areas and among informal workers.