Expansion of Panama Canal Is Approved

Posted By: PanaGal on 09.04.2007
Views: 516, Published in sections: Panama News ::

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- Voters overwhelmingly approved the
largest modernization plan in the 92-year history of the Panama
Canal on Sunday, backing a multi-billion dollar expansion that will
allow the world's largest ships to squeeze through the shortcut
between the seas.

About 79 percent of Panamanians voted in favor the expansion with 42
percent of 4,416 polling stations reporting, according to
preliminary results released by the country's electoral tribunal.
Nearly 21 percent opposed the plan. There were not enough ballots
remaining to be counted reverse the trend.

Early returns pointed to a dismally low turnout with nearly 60
percent of the country's more than 2.1 million voters abstaining.

Thousands of supporters in green ''Yes'' T-shirts cast ballots
endorsing the $5.25 billion overhaul which would allow the canal to
handle modern container ships, cruise liners and tankers that are
too large for its current 108-foot-wide locks. The plan is to build
a third set of locks on the Pacific and Atlantic ends by 2015.

The Panama Canal Authority, the autonomous government agency that
runs the canal, says the project will double capacity of a waterway
already on pace to generate about $1.4 billion this year. Expansion
will be paid for by increasing tolls and take in more than $6
billion annually in revenue by 2025.

''Voting 'no' is like closing the door on the canal. It's the top
source of income for Panama and improving it means more money for
the government and less poverty,'' said Leonardo Aspira, a boat
salesman who sported a ''Yes'' shirt and baseball hat in Kuna Nega,
a largely Indian town of dirt roads and banana trees on the
outskirts of Panama City.

The canal employs 8,000 workers and the expansion is expected to
generate as many as 40,000 construction jobs. Unemployment in Panama
is 9.5 percent, and 40 percent of the country lives in poverty.

Critics contend the expansion will benefit the canal's customers
more than Panamanians, and fear it will stoke corruption and
uncontrolled debt if costs balloon.

''The expansion is necessary, but we all have to watch closely, make
sure there isn't embezzlement and corruption,' ' said Igor Meneses, a
34-year-old advertising executive who was waiting to vote in Panama
City. ''With that kind of money, there's a lot to steal.''

President Martin Torrijos, an outspoken supporter of expansion,
called the referendum ''probably the most important decision of this
generation,' ' after voting.

Opponents of the expansion plan complained about electoral foul play.

On the sweltering streets of Panama City, some wore red shirts and
smocks supporting a 'No' vote. But they were far outnumbered by
those in shirts, bandanas, caps and vests supporting expansion. Cars
and trucks with ''Yes'' bumper stickers and flags jammed streets.

Former President Guillermo Endara, who dressed in red from head to
toe to show his opposition to expansion, complained that polling
place workers wore ''Yes'' clothing and handed out cards with
directions on where and how to vote with propaganda supporting the
plan printed on the opposite side.

''That's vote-buying, '' Endara said.

School buses and vans with ''yes'' signs stuck to the side were also
seen whisking voters from poor, crowded neighborhoods to polling
places to vote.

But Albert Ramdin, assistant secretary-general for the Washington-
based Organization of American States, said polling place and
transportation workers supporting a position did not violate
electoral law in Panama.

Ramdin, heading a mission of 50 observers, said voting had been
orderly but that ''generally I believe most people say that this
turnout is a bit lower than they had seen before in general
elections.''

The United States arranged for Panamanian independence from Colombia
to build the canal, and ran it from 1914 to 1999. Torrijos' father,
strongman Omar Torrijos, signed a treaty with President Carter in
1977 to cede control of the waterway back to Panama, a decision that
also was approved by Panamanians in a referendum. Canal
administrator Alberto Aleman Zubieta said a defeat for the plan
could have grave consequences for Panama. ''Shippers will have to
look for other routes because Panama won't have the capacity for
them,'' he said.

International shipping companies have generally backed the plan as a
way to create further options for trade between Asia and the East
Coast of the United States.

''We've got to recognize that things have changed,'' said Fernando
Rivera, the Puerto Rican president-elect of the Caribbean Shipping
Association. ''Boats are bigger and business needs this expansion.''