Sharjah 24 AFP: Jose Raul Mulino, the protege of a graft-convicted former head of state, was declared Panama's president-elect after elections Sunday.

Mulino won the single-round, first-past-the-post race, securing 34 percent of votes cast, the Central American country's electoral tribunal said.

The 64-year-old new president will have to contend with deep-rooted corruption, a severe drought that has hobbled the economically critical Panama Canal, and a stream of US-bound migrants passing through its jungles.

Mulino said he had received the electoral result with "responsibility and humility," but also pledged to take "fearless" measures to restore economic vitality.

The vote, he told joyous supporters, represented "the majority will of the Panamanian people."

Runner up Ricardo Lombana, who received 25 percent of the vote, conceded defeat moments before the official result was announced.

There were lines at many polling stations as voters in the country of 4.4 million people cast ballots for a new president, parliament and local governments.

Opinion polls had shown right-wing lawyer Mulino far ahead of the pack of eight candidates.

But he was made to wait for a last-minute court decision Friday that finally validated his run for a five-year term.