PANAMA CITY – Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama's presidential elections in a landslide Sunday, promising to guide the country through the world economic crisis and an ambitious expansion of the Panama Canal.
The win by Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, marked a rare center-right election triumph in a region that has seen a wave of leftist leaders.
Electoral Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli, 57, the "indisputable winner" after preliminarty results showed him with 61 percent support and ruling-party candidate Balbina Herrera with 37 percent. Former President Guillermo Endara was a distant third. The winner was announced with 87 percent of the votes counted.
The U.S.-educated, pro-business Martinelli, who owns Panama's largest supermarket chain, said he would work for a national unity government because "that is what the country is counting on."
"Tomorrow we will all be Panamamians and we will change this country so that it has a good health system, good education, good transportation and good security," he said.
Herrera, a 54-year-old former housing minister under President Martin Torrijos, conceded defeat late Sunday and promised to respect the results.
She vowed to form "a responsible but very energetic opposition because we have stopped being a country of economic growth, with our house in order and a canal expansion plan in march."
The winner, whose five-year term starts on July 1, will have to guide Panama through the global economic crisis and the $5.25 billion expansion of the canal to increase its capacity and accommodate larger ships. The canal is Panama's economic motor.
Both Martinelli and Herrera supported the canal expansion, but recent world economic woes have generated uncertainty over the project, which is receiving $2.3 billion in international financing.
The canal project, which was approved in a 2006 referendum, is expected to create about 5,000 direct jobs in the small Central American nation between 2010 and 2011, when construction is at its peak, according to authorities.
The ruling party's popularity was undermined by the economic crisis, slowing growth and crime.
Panama's economy grew by an annual average of 8.7 percent over the past five years, and unemployment fell from 12 percent to 5.6 percent. The growth was fueled by foreign and state investment by the outgoing Torrijos government.
But growth this year is projected to be just 3-4 percent.
Amid the growing economic gloom, Martinelli played up his business experience as owner of the Super 99 supermarket chain. He has a degree from the University of Arkansas.
During his campaign, he vowed to attract foreign investment and promote free trade, particularly with Panama's main trading partner, the United States. Panama has agreed a free trade accord with the United States, which has been held up in the U.S. Congress by concerns about Panamanian labor rights and tax evasion.
He lost in his first run for the presidency in 2004 and returned for Sunday's election at the head of a four-party conservative coalition.
Herrera, who ran for the governing coalition led by the Democratic Revolutionary Party, had promised to spread the wealth from Panama City to the poorer province and indigenous communities.
Few problems were reported despite heavy turnout at the country's 2,382 voting stations, observers from the Organization of American States said in a preliminary report issued after polls closed. Early returns were expected late Sunday.
Panamanians also elected a vice president, members of Congress, mayors and other local officials. More than 2.2 million people were eligible to vote.
(This version CORRECTS spelling to Herrera sted Herrara)
-AP
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