-Caveat Lector- Dead Panamanians Campaign for President Reuters 19-APR-99 PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's two most revered leaders are at it again, going head-to-head in the country's upcoming presidential election, and most Panamanians do not seem to be bothered by the fact that both are long dead. The ghosts of former strongman Gen. Omar Torrijos and Arnulfo Arias, ousted three times as president, are driving forces behind the May 2 election, among the most important since Panama's U.S.-assisted independence in 1903. Martin Torrijos, 36, the son of Omar, is fighting to maintain a fragile lead in opinion polls over Mireya Moscoso, 52, the widow of Arias, whose presidency was overthrown by the elder Torrijos in 1968. The new president will be in charge at the end of this year when the United States hands over control of the Panama Canal to Panama and pulls all its troops out of the Central American country, ending a century-long military presence here. Both Moscoso and the younger Torrijos -- popularly known by their first names as Mireya and Martin -- have largely ignored the significance of the U.S. departure, focusing their campaigns on Panama's widespread unemployment and 36 percent poverty rate. But neither has outlined a concrete platform, so analysts see voters looking for other reasons, such as history, to take sides. "You're running two dead people. Omar Torrijos is running against Arnulfo Arias. Neither (living) candidate has experience in elected office. They're both running on the name but not on ability," Richard Millette, a political analyst with the North South Center, told Reuters. "This is a campaign of form without substance. ... The parties have no ideology, no platforms and no candidate that has not avoided taking a stand on every issue," Millette said, adding that this "reflects the weakness of parties in Panama, which are simply groups of office seekers." In a recent poll, Torrijos slipped from a 13-point lead to eight points ahead of Moscoso, 43 percent to 35 percent. Banker Albert Vallarino, who divides the Moscoso-led opposition and will most likely keep her from an easy win, was third with 15 percent in the poll. POLITICAL VACUUM The late leaders Arias and Torrijos, both very charismatic, cultivated support in their day with populist promises to the poor. But neither left a solid tradition behind when he died -- Torrijos in a mysterious plane crash in 1981 and Arnulfo at home in 1988 while running for president for a sixth time. "Torrijos and Arnulfo were giants, but they didn't prepare anyone else to continue their traditions ... so the principles of Arnulfo and Torrijos are diluted," Panamanian artist Edwin Cedeno said. "People trusted them because they really believed in what they were doing, but today's candidates seem to be in it only for the power," he added. Omar Torrijos is fondly remembered for brokering the 1977 treaty with U.S. President Jimmy Carter providing for the U.S. pullout from Panama and the hand-over of the canal. But his opponents best recall his strict military government, as well as that of his successor, Gen. Manuel Noriega, who ruled Panama until he was toppled by a U.S. invasion in 1989. Arias, on the other hand, was never given a chance to serve his term in his three successful presidential bids. He was overthrown in 1941, in 1951 and finally in 1968 in a Torrijos coup that led to 21 years of military rule in Panama. Arias, exiled under the Torrijos and Noriega regimes with his wife Moscoso, was also defeated in two fraudulent elections and was running again in 1988 when he died at 87. PERSONALITY POLITICS Since the deaths of both leaders, Mireya's Arnulfista party (named after her late husband) and Martin's Revolutionary Democrats (the PRD, which once served as the political arm of Panama's military regimes) have jockeyed for power, each having won an election since the U.S. invasion. Their campaigns, with slogans ranging from Torrijos' "New Nation," to Moscoso's "Mireya is Change," are loaded with forward-looking rhetoric, but they also dredge up images from the country's political past. "Omar lives, Martin follows," is the favored cry of his PRD supporters at rallies where General Torrijos' Marlboro man-like visage is often displayed behind his son, a former McDonald's fast food executive who shares his father's good looks. "I was honored with an extraordinary father with a great social sensitivity ... and I was able to accompany him, since I was a kid, in his leadership, which developed opportunities for the most humble sectors of our country," Torrijos told a group of business owners at a recent conference. "And I saw how he opened the door to the participation of a middle class that had been excluded from the nation's development," Torrijos added. Moscoso, who lost by a narrow margin to current President Ernesto Perez Balladares in the 1994 presidential election, uses her dead husband's name in her campaign. "We have a doctrine that is Panamanian. It was created by Dr. Arnulfo Arias more than 65 years ago. It is a doctrine that is directed at the most poor, humble sector of the public," she told Reuters in an interview. "This is our doctrine. It is the ideology of the Arnulfista party. We follow this doctrine. Martin says he is the new nation, but he is not. He is from the PRD." 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