by Eugenio Alemán
Puerto Rico's Comisión Estatal de Elecciones (CEE), the island's electoral commission, has already made a preliminary certification of the election results, declaring the candidate from the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, as the new governor. Yet, the candidate from the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and ex-governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Roselló, continues to contest the results. Roselló says that he has information he won the elections and will wait for the recount to decide whether to accept the decision of the CEE. According to the commission, Vilá won by only 3,880 votes in one of the closest elections in Puerto Rican history—48.38% to 48.18%.
Interestingly, Roselló may have a point in contesting the electoral results. If one looks at the political map of the island, it is clear that the PNP—Roselló's party—made important inroads against the PPD in the November 2 elections, winning 45 mayoral posts to the PPD's 33, and reversing the scenario of the previous election (when the PPD won 45 and the PNP won 33). A similar situation could be seen in the lower house of Congress, where the PNP won a majority of the districts (26 vs.14). Meanwhile, the PNP won six more seats in the lower house through the proportional system ("acumulación"), while the PPD won four and the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) secured one.
The Puerto Rican party system consists of basically three parties that represent three different statuses for the Island. The PNP wants Puerto Rico to become the 51st state of the United States of America, while the PPD wants Puerto Rico to remain a Commonwealth of the United States. Meanwhile, the PIP wants complete independence from the U.S. mainland. At the same time, the upper house of Congress is also shifting toward the PNP, with 12 direct Senate seats going to the PNP, four to the PPD, and one to the PIP. The proportional Senate seats have been distributed as follows: six for the PNP, four for the PPD, and one for the PIP. Of course, all these results are pending a final certification by the CEE, because many of these races were extremely close.
Another interesting "anomaly" during the election was that the candidate for the governorship—if current results stand—would be different than the candidate who won the election for "resident commissioner" (comisionado residente) in Washington, D.C. The resident commissioner is a post created for territories that are not states of the union, and who works as a type of lobbyist for the territory in the U.S. Congress. Until these elections, the resident commissioner has always been from the same party that has won the governorship. This result shows the effects of what Puerto Ricans call "watermelon" voters. Since the party color for the PIP is green and the one for the PPD is red, they argue that these swing voters are like watermelons—green in the outside but red in the inside. These members of the PIP (the independence party) have recently supported the PPD party candidate for governor, primarily to prevent the PNP candidate (who wants U.S. statehood) from winning the post.
So, while the majorities of the Senate, the lower house, and most mayoral posts have gone to the PNP, its candidate did not win the governor's race. Clearly, the numerous corruption allegations against Roselló and all of his political allies imprisoned for federal corruption violations finally prevented Roselló from winning an election that it seemed impossible for him to lose. In fact, many Puerto Ricans argued it was simply impossible that Roselló had no idea of what went on during his administration—a clear indication of his inability to govern the island. On Roselló's side, the federal government has been unable to link the ex-governor to any of the misdeeds committed during his administration. Thus, the "watermelons" took it upon themselves to deliver victory to the PPD candidate—Vilá.
All this has left the Puerto Rican economy on the sidelines. Island businesses have strongly complained that the outgoing PPD government is extremely inefficient. Now, they will have to deal with a new political landscape where Congress is in the hands of the PNP, the governor's seat is occupied by the PPD, and the resident commissioner is a member of the PNP. They fear, however, that the economic impasse of the past four years will continue. If this turns out to be true, they can put some of the blame on the "watermelons."
