2024 Panamanian general election

General elections were held in Panama on 5 May 2024 to elect a new President of Panama, members of the National Assembly and local governments. Due to constitutional term limits, incumbent president Laurentino Cortizo was ineligible for a second consecutive term. The winners of the general election, including the new president of Panama, were inaugurated on 1 July.

The conservative candidate José Raúl Mulino, who was appointed as presidential candidate of Realizing Goals following the conviction and subsequent disqualification of former president Ricardo Martinelli, won the election with 34.2% of the vote. Mulino defeated a total of seven other candidates, among whom his closest rival was Ricardo Lombana of MOCA, who received around 24.6%.

The governing Democratic Revolutionary Party suffered its worst ever electoral result, despite being the largest political party in Panama. Its candidate, incumbent vice president José Gabriel Carrizo, came in sixth place with 5.88% of the vote; and the party suffered significant losses in the legislative and local elections, losing the mayorships of the most populated districts of the country, including Panamá District, San Miguelito, Colón, Arraiján, La Chorrera, David, and Santiago de Veraguas.

In contrast, there was an outstanding performance by new parties and independent politicians. Realizing Goals, the party of the president-elect, which was founded in 2021 by former president Ricardo Martinelli, gained 14 seats in the National Assembly. Another Way Movement, founded in late 2019 by Ricardo Lombana, became the most-voted opposition party by gaining a fourth of the presidential vote, three members of the National Assembly and numerous local governments, including the mayorship of Santiago. Neither the Democratic Revolutionary Party or the Panameñista Party, the traditional biggest two parties of Panama, were in either of the top two coalitions.