Panamanian general election, 1948

The Panama held a general election on 27 May 1948, electing both a new President of the Republic and a new National Assembly.

"For the 1948 campaign the reigning Liberal Doctrinaire Party chose 73-year-old Domingo Díaz Arosemena as its candidate. Arnulfo Arias Madrid rose from the political dead, dusted off his ‘panameñismo’ nationalism, and in an initial count by the National Elections Board apparently won the presidency by 1500 votes. Díaz supporters thereupon attacked the Board. At this point José Antonio Remón Cantera, head of the National Guard, took charge. Under his protection the Elections Board magically made enough of Arias’s votes disappear so Díaz became President".

The National Electoral Jury announced the final results on 7 August according Díaz a majority of 2,364 votes.

On 28 July 1949 the president Domingo Díaz Arosemena took a six month leave for health reasons. The First Vice-President Daniel Chanis Pinzón was sworn in as acting chief executive. Chanis became president following Arosemena's death on 23 August 1949.

Daniel Chanis Pinzón's presidency came to an end on 20 November. Police Chief José Antonio Remón Cantera led a coup d'état in response to Chanis's refusal to overturn a Panama Supreme Court decision invalidating a contract between an abbatoir that was "part of José Antonio Remón Cantera's business empire" and several powerful Panamanian families. Daniel Chanis Pinzón had asked for Remón's resignation previously, and, when Remón refused, tendered his own resignation in protest. Whether this resignation was voluntary or forced by Remón is unclear, although it would appear that foreign diplomatic pressure, not wanting to see full out bloodshed, encouraged the resignation.

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