Panama to back plan to widen canal

PANAMA voted yesterday in a referendum backing an ambitious €4.2 billion expansion plan to give its famous canal its biggest face-lift in a move the government hopes will lift the nation out of poverty.

Opinion polls ahead of the simple Yes or No plebiscite showed more than two-thirds of voters supported the project that will double the canal capacity and allow mammoth modern cargo ships to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Voting was set to conclude late last night.

The expansion of the canal, which is one of the engineering wonders of the world, will create a jobs bonanza for Panama’s three million people and boost economic growth, supporters say.

Critics warn the plan could bankrupt the small nation, which is already laden with huge debts and where most people live in poverty, if costs spiral. Taxpayers could be forced to pick up the tab and investors could lose money.

Long lines of voters formed at polling stations across Panama City yesterday.

Wealthy Panamanians jumped out of new vehicles and joined the lines in one upscale residential district where President Martin Torrijos was to vote. Mr Torrijos’ father, populist leader General Omar Torrijos, helped clear the way in the 1970s for the canal’s handover from the US.

“This country needs this project to join the first world,” said Joaquin Rodriguez, 48, a businessman wearing a green T-shirt, the colour of the Yes vote.

Across the city in a more modest suburb, voters walked to cast their ballots in a school.

“I voted against the plan because it is too much money and too risky,” said Belinda Hernandez, 20, a hairdresser sporting a bright red dress, the colour of the No vote campaign.

Opened in 1914 at a cost of $375 million and 25,000 lives, the canal was dynamited and dug out by thousands of labourers who braved deadly malaria and yellow fever.

It saves ships a long haul around South America’s treacherous Cape Horn and carries around 4% of world trade.