A man, a plan, an election.

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA-From the perspective of an international observer of the Panamanian elections, the events of May 5-7 are at once heartening and tragic, What bodes well for the people of Panama and for the larger issues of democracy, pluralism, and freedom is that the Panamanian people turned out in huge numbers to participate in an election that was rigged from the outset. The tragedy flows from the violent disregard the Noriega regime displays for the democratic aspirations of the people.

Two points stand out in comparing the Panamanian elections with recent ones in the Philippines and Chile. The first is that General Noriega and his supporters were totally and completely out of touch with reality. They evidently thought that the 15 per cent or so advantage they would receive through the "automatic fraud" built into the electoral law, systematic disfranchisement, and double-voting would be enough to put them over the top. While this minimal level of fraud would certainly be detectable by observers, the regime no doubt hoped that it would be dismissed or tolerated as "normal" for Panamanian elections.

However, the extraordinary turnout and the strength of the anti-NoriegaDuque vote clogged the system to the point where the only alternative for the regime was first a resort to the most obvious type of fraud-rigged tally sheets-and, later, the annulment of the elections altogether. This indicates that the Noriega forces had not a clue as to their own political weakness. While this might have been expected from an ailing and isolated Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, General Noriega has made a career of knowing the relative strengths and weaknesses of his supporters and his adversaries. The "isolation of dictatorship" seen in so many other cases certainly held true in Panama.

The second comparative point is that the Noriega forces, including the thoroughly dominated electoral tribunal, did not even bother to put a reasonable face on either the preparations for the elections, or the actual elections themselves. The electoral tribunal took steps to discourage international observers-including clear warnings that our safety was at risk unless we accepted government security guards-and gave our observation schedules to the electoral authorities and military officials. On the day after the election, when the rigged tally sheets were being counted, we saw not one sign of remorse, nor even an attempt to conceal the fact that the entire electoral process was being trashed before our very eyes.

DURING THE actual voting we observed a microcosm of the drama being played out nationwide:

Huge lines of voters in place at 7:00 A.M. when the polls were scheduled to open, only to find that the balloting materials were not at the locations, and would not appear, in some cases, for another two hours;

-Frustration on the part of those who braved these delays in the tropical heat, only to find that their names were not on the list of registrants;

-The inordinate number of elderly people who, in some areas, found themselves unable to vote at their normal location, instead being told that their names appeared on lists for voting locations many miles away;

-A young man whose name did not appear at his normal voting place, but who found that he was assigned to vote on an island near Contadora; he made the trip, and proudly brought back to us late in the day his punched identification card indicating that he had voted on the island;

-The cheers that greeted the arrival of international observers at more remote polling places, and the crowds who rushed to us to thank us for making the effort to support them;

-The frightening experience of seeing the goons of the "Dignity Battalions" gather after midnight around polling places to intercept the legitimate tally sheets en route to the regional counting facilities, and the requests by opposition poll watchers that we accompany them to the counting centers to help assure their personal safety;

-The sounds of gunfire on the day after the elections, but a few hundred yards from our hotel; and our knowing that with each shot, Panamanian democracy was likely to lose yet another supporter;

-And finally, the pleas, on our departure, for us to remain so as not to allow the pro-Noriega forces free rein in the week that followed the elections.

Among some Panamanians, there is a certain resignation-that once again, the military has stolen an election. Among others, and by far the overwhelming majority, is the belief that the process cannot be turned back, that a threshold has been crossed, and that while the price will be dear, democracy will indeed triumph. These people's victory over Noriega is a victory for us all; their defeat by General Noriega's thugs is a defeat for us all, and we will have lost a bit of our freedom if they lose theirs.