Reelection: Periods, mandates and periods

The National Constitution of PaNamá, current, in terms of terms and concepts usually uses different voices or words that refer to the concept of temporality at the level of constitutionality. This is also commonly observed in other constitutions Ibero-American: Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, etcc.

In that order, the collection is created, not a little provisions of the constitution, to the following terms or words: years, months, days, sessions, period and periods. The aforementioned is confirmed by the constitutional norms or articles themselves. For example: 1. Representatives are elected for a period of five years (Article 129); 2. Judges of the court (142) are tenfold, the same as those from Electoral Court of Panama; 3. The National Assembly meets in sessions that last eight months in a period of one year (Article 149), with the proviso that in that period they have two convocations, each of which lasts four months; Article 177 stipulates that the President of the Republic is elected for a period of five years, and the next article, i.e. 178, states that citizens who elected president and vice president of the Republic they cannot be re-elected for the same office in two immediately following presidential terms; mayors and corregimientos representatives are elected for a period of five years (Articles 225 and 241); governors are free, that is, they are not appointed for any period or term. Deadline and deadline do not mean the same thing.

A deadline is the moment in which an action must be performed or in which it must be done start. Appointment This is the deadline within which the action must be performed. This concept is not demarcated or divided by the term. The event can be confirmed, as long as the limit set for the appointment is not exceeded. Not every term implies a deadline; however, every concept necessarily contains concepts. That should be clear.

As for the term, this word suggests the idea that a fact, act, performance, event, etc. is checked within the same, within the term in question, regardless of its nature. In this case, in connection with the analysis of the term “period” contained in the wording the aforementioned Article 178 of the Constitution, the word period is assimilated or synonymous with the term term. The word “period”, from the Latin periŏdus, It is regularly used to indicate the time interval required to complete a repeating cycle or, simply, the length of time something lasts.

In this sense, one could say, with regard to presidential mandatesthat they are certified in two mandates, each for five years, in accordance with the constitutional provisions that determine the period of time, i.e. for how many years, the president is elected. President and Vice President of the Republic.

We clarify, it is necessary to specify this, since it is not about adding up the years of each presidential term, and concluding that if ten years have not been fulfilled, a citizen who has already held the office of president of the people could not participate in the presidential elections, but it is currently considered that he candidate for president of the country the deadline, that is, the certification of the deadline that will soon expire, this is the second, precisely because he waited for those two deadlines to participate in the electoral competition, and it would be against all logic to think or consider that he could not do this until the end of the last day of the second period of rule or exercising political power respectively. Since opting for such an unfortunate interpretation would ignore a clear constitutional norm and twist it, and go into the third period, which is obviously not what the norm says or prescribes in the commentary, i.e.l Article 178 of the Constitution, the same one that clearly mentions that there are two periods, not three.

That is, the mandate or the period, what it requires or requires is to check, in this case the candidacy regardless of the electoral competition, after having already been the president or vice president, for new period of government as a candidate for president or vice president of the Republic, and this is in development and nearing conclusion, as stated, the second period indicated or required by the constitutional norm from 178, since the constitutional maker did not want to force the candidate to enter the third period if it was required that ten years must be fulfilled, and not the verification term, because it is also based on the logical and safe premise that when the second one expires, it is logical that a new period of rule begins or begins. God bless the country!