Posted on 11/09/2016 7:46:32 AM PST by Ebenezer
Ricardo Rosselló with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP) was elected Governor of Puerto Rico during yesterday’s general elections. With 97% of the island’s polling stations reporting, Rosselló (the son of former Governor Pedro Rosselló) received 41.76% of the vote compared to 38.93% for former Secretary of State and pro-Commonwealth Popular Democratic Party (PPD) candidate David Bernier. According to additional information posted on the Commonwealth Elections Commission website this morning, Rosselló carried 46 of the island’s 78 municipalities, Bernier carried 23, and the remaining 9 were not yet called due to a 0.5% or less difference between the two candidates. Independent candidates Alexandra Lúgaro and Manuel Cidre came in third and fourth respectively, garnering a combined 16.83% of the votes cast, while the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s María de Lourdes Santiago performed poorly with only 2.13%. The remaining 0.34% of the gubernatorial vote went to Rafael Bernabe with the Working People’s Party. In the race for Resident Commissioner (the island’s non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives), Jenniffer González with the PNP was elected with 48.76% of the vote.
The PNP gained control of both houses of the Puerto Rico Legislature and won 33 of the island’s 78 mayoral races. One particular upset among the 45 municipal elections won by the PPD was the re-election of the capital San Juan’s Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz by a 9-point margin over PNP challenger Leo Díaz. In an election year influenced by independent candidates, the Puerto Rico Senate will have its first-ever independent member in local physician José Vargas Vidot, who won an at-large seat.
Puerto Rico ping
Ricans out of the I-4 corridor.
A good night all around. And a hangover to last days!
I’m disappointed Cruz won a second term in San Juan, though. See her take over the PPD leadership following Bernier’s defeat and bid for the governorship in 2020.
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