JOSE RAUL MULINO was announced as Panama’s new president on Sunday and will now lead the central American country for the next five years — despite all but retiring from politics just over six months ago.

Preliminary results of Sunday’s poll gave Mr Mulino 35 per cent of the vote and a nine point lead over his nearest opponent.

Standing before a pack of supporters Sunday night, Mr Mulino said: “I never imagined this.”

Mr Mulino, whose last position in politics was as minister of security in then president Ricardo Martinelli’s 2009-2014 administration, was initially set to be the former leader's running mate after Mr Martinelli’s wife declined.

But then Mr Martinelli was disqualified from running after he was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for a money laundering conviction. 

The president-elect won as he rode the ex-leader's popularity to victory.

Mr Mulino became known as a private business leader who took part in a civil movement against the dictatorship of General Manuel Antonio Noriega, who was ousted by the invasion on December 20, 1989.

As president, he has promised to stop soaring levels of migration through the Darien jungles — the only land connecting the American continents — where more than a half million people crossed last year. 

However, experts question the viability of his plan owing to the sheer number of vulnerable people forced to migrate.

“I will make the effort to end this migratory crisis in our territory with respect for human rights and with sincere international participation,” Mr Mulino said at the closing of his campaign last week.

As security minister, he was also the target of harsh criticism following police repression of a protest  by Indigenous banana growers in the northern provinces of Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui in 2010. 

The crackdown left two dead and more than 100 injured by pellet shots.