Puerto Rico suspended voting in the primary elections on Sunday in some parts of the island due to the lack of electoral ballots. Faced with the chaos, some officials demanded the resignation of the president of the electoral commission of this US territory, reported the news agency The Associated Press.
Although the electoral commission said it would keep all affected voting centers open to guarantee full access for at least eight hours, hundreds of voters who turned out amid the coronavirus pandemic returned home frustrated without having voted .
In this Sunday's elections Pedro Pierluisi, who was sworn in as governor for a few days after the departure of Ricardo Roselló, who is competing with the current governor Wanda Vázquez to obtain the nomination of the New Progressive Party, which is in favor of Puerto Rico stopping be an American territory and become another state.
In addition to that position, voters elected candidates for the November general elections on the island, legislators and municipal mayors.
Vázquez called the situation a "disaster" and demanded the resignation of the president of the electoral commission .
"They made the people of Puerto Rico believe, not the candidates, that they were prepared," he said. “Today the opposite was evident. They lied".
[The explosive revelations that destroyed the reputation of the Governor of Puerto Rico]
“I have never seen anything like what just happened here in Puerto Rico on American soil. It is a disgrace for our government and our people, ” said Pierluisi, who briefly served as governor after Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned in August 2019 after widespread protests over government corruption and the leak of a private chat.
However, Pierluisi had to leave office when the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that according to the constitution Vázquez, then secretary of justice, was next in turn as there was no secretary of state.
The two main parties on the island, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the New Progressive Party (PNP) have demanded that the process be suspended and that there be new elections on August 16 in places where the ballots did not arrive on time. While other political actors have asked that the entire process be annulled.
[Tear gas and violence in the tenth demonstration to demand the resignation of the Governor of Puerto Rico]
The PPD, which supports Puerto Rico's current political status as a U.S. associate state, is holding a primary for the first time in its 82-year history.
Three people are competing for the opposition party for the post of gubernatorial candidate: the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, known for her public discussions with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, after the devastation of Hurricane María; Senator for Puerto Rico Eduardo Bhatia and Carlos Delgado , mayor of the northwestern coastal town of Isabela.
“That is not only unsustainable, but illegal. It is not a question of extending the schedule is not the solution, the solution is to suspend the primary in all the affected towns. In such an environment, equality and freedom in the vote could never be claimed, as our Constitution ensures, "Pablo Colón, president of the campaign for the reelection of Ponce mayor Mayita Meléndez, told the newspaper El Vocero.
