Panameñista Party

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The Panameñista Party (Spanish: Partido Panameñista) is a Panamanian political party.

The party is the second-oldest in Panama. It was founded in 1932 by Harmodio Arias, a prominent newspaper publisher, as the National Revolutionary Party. Its membership largely came from Patriotic Communal Action, a nationalist organization that opposed the large amount of American influence in Panama which had led a coup in 1930.

In 1936, Harmodio's younger brother, Arnulfo, took control of the party. In the early 1930s, he had begun promoting a nationalist doctrine called "Panameñismo" (Panamanianism), and this became the basis for the party. It was renamed the Panameñista Party in the mid-1940s.

The party was dominated by Arnulfo Arias, who was elected president of Panama three times and deposed by the military each time. After his third ouster, in 1968, a small dissident group broke with Arias to support the military regime of Omar Torrijos. In return, the Torrijos regime allowed the dissidents to take over the party's registration. The main body, however, remained with Arias and renamed itself the Authentic Panameñista Party. Known by its Spanish acronym, "PPA," it was one of the leading opponents of Manuel Noriega.

Arnulfo Arias was to have been the party's candidate for president in 1989, but he died in 1988. He was succeeded as party leader by his widow, Mireya Moscoso. For the 1989 elections, the party was the main component of an anti-Noriega coalition, with the PPA's Guillermo Endara as the coalition's presidential candidate. He won by a 3-to-1 margin over Noriega's stand-in, but those elections were nullified by Noriega. Noriega was overthrown a few months later, and Endara took over as president.

In 1990, the party was renamed the Arnulfista Party in its longtime leader's honor; though party members had been called "Arnulfistas" for many years. It was the main opposition party to the administration of Ernesto Perez Balladares, regaining the presidency in 1999 under Moscoso.

At the last legislative elections, 2 May 2004, the party won 19.2 % of the popular vote and 17 out of 78 seats. In presidential elections held the same day, its candidate, José Miguel Alemán, finished a poor third, with 16.4% of the vote.

The party changed its name back to the old Panameñista Party in 2005.