After troubled election, NPP holds on to governorship, other parties advance at legislative and municipal levels

The Puerto Rico State Elections Commission (CEE, in Spanish), the subject of substantial electoral reform only months earlier, proved less than capable of handling last week’s voting processes in an optimal manner. In a reflection of the voting taking place across the United States, it was days before the results of several races could be ascertained, with results still coming in over the weekend.

Eventually, a clear picture emerged: Pedro Pierluisi of the New Progressive Party (NPP) is Puerto Rico’s new governor-elect, even as his party lost several of the seats it previously held. Additionally, both the NPP and the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) faced significant new challenges from emerging political parties, which managed to win several seats and heralded a government more diverse (both ideologically and in terms of identity) and potentially more divided than ever. 

Although Governor-elect Pierluisi and the NPP eked out a victory at the gubernatorial level, it did so with less than a third of the total votes cast—32.9%, to be exact. In second place was Carlos Delgado Altieri of the PPD, who won 31.5% of the votes, while other parties, in an impressive showing, split the remaining votes: Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) obtained 13.7% of the vote—more than three times the party’s usual share—Alexandra Lúgaro of emerging party Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) received 14.2%, and César Vázquez of Proyecto Dignidad (PD) won 6.9%.   

Of the emerging parties, MVC, established last year, proved most successful, picking up two seats in the Puerto Rico Senate and three in the Puerto Rico House. Additionally, the party’s candidate for San Juan mayor, Manuel Natal, fell just short of winning that race, which eventually went to NPP candidate Miguel Romero.

In the legislative races, another emerging party, PD, obtained one seat in the Senate and another in the House, while the PIP obtained one seat in each legislative body. The Puerto Rico House of Representatives, formerly under NPP control, now has a PDP majority, with the party holding 26 out of 51 seats. Similarly, the PDP also holds a slim majority in the Senate, with 14 out of 27 seats. More than 20 incumbent legislators were voted out of office. Across the Island, more than 20 mayors were unseated. 

Non-Binding status referendum obtains majority support for statehood

Along with selecting their new government on election day, Puerto Ricans were also tasked with voting on a non-binding status referendum, the second such vote in less than four years. Like the last referendum held in 2017, the majority of votes cast—52%— were in favor of statehood.

While Puerto Rican voters are no strangers to status referendums, this one was substantially different from those held in past years: while past referendums called on voters to select between various status options—the most recent prior referendum called on people to choose between Statehood and Independence / Free Association—this one only asked whether or not Puerto Rico should be a state.

Additionally, whereas the 2017 vote was the subject of an organized boycott by anti-statehooders, no such organizational effort took place this year. Nevertheless, the results elsewhere on the ballot make it somewhat harder to draw easy conclusions from the results. In the end, the measure did far better than the party pushing for it, as the New Progressive Party (NPP) finished the election with considerably fewer seats than before. 

Upon learning of the referendum’s results, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González of the NPP—who was re-elected to her position last week—called them “solid, clear, [and] overwhelming.”

Puerto Rico coronavirus statistics for November 9

According to the Puerto Rico Health Department, 72,860 people are believed to have been infected with COVID-19, an increase of 19,189 since October 11, when the total was 53,671. This points to a significant increase in the rate of new cases, as the increase in the month between September 14 and October 11 was of 15,921.

The rate of fatalities, however, appears to be decreasing: the death toll is currently 882, with 152 of those having occurred in the weeks between October 11 (when the death toll was 730) and November 9. Comparatively, 188 people died from the virus between September 14, (when the death toll was 542) and October 11. There are currently 544 people hospitalized due to COVID.