(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in Panama are still content with the performance of their president three years into his term, according to a poll by Dichter & Neira published in La Prensa. 59 per cent of respondents think Martín Torrijos has done a good or excellent job leading the country, down 1.3 points since July.

Torrijos—the son of Omar Torrijos, an army general who ruled Panama from 1968 to 1981—won the May 2004 presidential election as a candidate for the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) with 47.44 per cent of the vote.

In 1999, Panama regained full control of the Panama Canal, the source of 10 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In October 2006, Panamanian voters supported the canal's $5.25 billion U.S. expansion plan—which would add a parallel set of locks to allow giant cargo ships to pass through the waterway—in a nationwide referendum.

In July, Torrijos also unveiled a $10 billion U.S. development project that is regarded as the largest investment project in Panama's relatively young history. The plan seeks to create an urban centre on the outskirts of Panama City, the country's capital and economic hub, where an American air force base used to operate.

On Aug. 14, Torrijos announced that the pending construction works on the canal would begin on Sept. 3, and invited everyone to attend the inauguration of the expansion project, saying, "This is not the work of a particular sector or government. It's a gigantic, historical project that involves us all and a project that affects the Panamanian state as a whole, which is why this date should not go unnoticed".

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How would you rate the performance of Martín Torrijos as president?

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