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Panama Provincial and Municipal Government
The nine provincial governments are little more than
administrative subdivisions of the central government. Article 249
of the Constitution states that "in each province there shall be a
Governor freely appointed and removed by the Executive who shall be
the agent and representative of the President within his
jurisdiction." In addition, each province has a body known as the
Provincial Council, composed of district (corregimiento)
representatives. The governor, mayors, and additional individuals
"as determined by the law" also take part in each council, but
without voting rights. The powers of these councils are largely
advisory, and they lack actual legislative responsibility. The
Comarca de San Blas, inhabited largely by Cuna Indians, has a
distinct form of local government headed by caciques, or tribal
leaders
(see Indians
, ch. 2).
In contrast, the nation's sixty-five municipal governments are
"autonomous political organizations." Although closely tied to the
national government, municipal officials, under Article 232 of the
Constitution, may not be removed from office by the national
administration. In each municipality, the mayor, the director of
municipal administration, and their substitutes (suplentes)
are directly elected for five-year terms. There is, however, an
additional constitutional provision that the Legislative Assembly
may pass laws requiring that officials in some or all
municipalities are to be appointed by the president rather than
elected. In 1984 municipal officials were elected in a separate
election, held on short notice after the election of the president
and the legislature. Opposition parties protested the timing and
conditions of these elections, but participated. The great majority
of offices, including those in the capital, were won by progovernment candidates, but opposition parties did gain control of
a few municipalities, notably in David, capital of Chiriquí
Province.
Municipalities are divided further into districts, from each of
which a representative is elected to the Municipal Council. Should
a town have fewer than five districts, five council members are
chosen in at-large elections. These districts, in turn, have their
own form of local government, headed by a corregidor, and
including a junta communal made up of the corregidor,
the district's representative to the Municipal
Council, and five other residents "selected in the form determined
by law."
The major concern of municipal and district officials is the
collection and expenditure of local revenues. These local
politicians have some control over public works, business licenses,
and other forms of local regulations and improvements, but many
functions that fall within the jurisdiction of local governments in
other nations, such as educational, judicial, and police
administration, are left exclusively to the jurisdiction of the
central government. Local administrations do contribute to the cost
of schools, but the amount of their contribution is determined at
the national level, based on their population and their state of
economic and social development.
Data as of December 1987
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