PANAMA: Panama voted yesterday on an ambitious $5.25 billion (€4.16 billion) expansion plan to give its famous canal its biggest facelift in a move the government hopes will lift the nation out of poverty.
Opinion polls ahead of the plebiscite showed more than two-thirds of voters supported the project to double the canal's capacity and allow mammoth modern cargo ships to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The expansion of the canal, which is one of the engineering wonders of the world and was opened in 1914, 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. Taxpayers could be forced to pick up the bill and investors could lose money.
Long lines of voters formed yesterday at polling stations across Panama City under the already stifling morning heat.
Wealthy Panamanians jumped out of shiny new vehicles and joined the lines in one wealthy residential district where President Martin Torrijos was due to vote later. Mr Torrijos's father, populist leader Gen Omar Torrijos, helped clear the way in the 1970s for the canal's handover from the United States.
"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 campaign.
Across the city in a more modest suburb, voters walked to cast their ballots in a school where palm trees waved in the grounds in a light breeze.
"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 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 about 4 per cent of world trade.
But the canal's lock system is too small for many modern tankers and ships making the passage, mainly from the United States, Japan, China and Chile, also face longer waits to make the 80km inter-oceanic trip as global shipping grows.
The expansion plan would build new sets of wider locks and deeper and bigger access channels, and let ships carrying 12,000 containers pass through, up from about 4,000 containers at present.