Posted on 03/10/2008 1:44:35 PM PDT by Ebenezer
(English-language translation)
[Resident Commissioner] Luis Fortuño last night became the [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party's (PNP's) candidate for Governor after getting 59.28% of the votes of party members participating in yesterday's primaries.
He will share the ballot with Pedro Pierluisi, who was favored by PNP supporters for the Resident Commissioner nomination. Pierluisi, who was actually Fortuño's candidate, got 60% of the votes.
Regarding the candidacy for Governor, the official numbers from the Commonwealth Elections Commission (CEE) showed that, at the closing of this edition, Fortuño had 97,575 votes, while his challenger, [former two-term Governor] Pedro Rosselló, had 67,033. These numbers were obtained from 491 polling stations out of a total of 1,786.
Fortuño's victory became evident around 6:00 PM [Atlantic Time] as the results that began to arrive at CEE headquarters beginning at 5:30 PM placed him ahead of the challenger. In fact, Rosselló conceded defeat at that time in a message to PNP supporters who gathered at the party's headquarters in Santurce. Meanwhile, Fortuño's campaign manager Angel Cintrón acknowledged the triumph at the candidate's campaign headquarters. Having won the primary, [Fortuño] becomes the PNP's Chairman.
The first results began to arrive at approximately 4:00 PM, when the votes from several polling stations were reported. Those numbers initially placed Rosselló ahead, but everything began to change around 5:30 PM.
The numbers for the Resident Commissioner primary began to arrive more or less at the same time.
In this case, the trend was clear from the beginning, to the point that the first polling stations reporting indicated that Pierluisi had 50.77% of the votes. His opponents Charlie Rodríguez and Miriam Ramírez-Ferrer had 42.82% and 6.41% of the 390 votes counted, respectively. A similar pattern was noticed in the rest of the stations.
There were times when Rodríguez was ahead of Pierluisi. However, the numbers changed quickly to favor Pierluisi.
At the closing of this edition, Pierluisi had 102,385 votes, followed by Rodríguez with 57,658 and Ramírez-Ferrer with 10,480.
The CEE numbers at the closing of this edition reflected a large turnout by PNP voters. Preliminary estimates indicated that close to 720,000 New Progressives participated.
This number was close to the PNP's projection which estimated that some 700,000 members would participate. In total, a participation of 900,000 voters in PNP and [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) primaries was expected. The latter had a participation of 160,000 voters in its primaries, which was somewhat below the PPD leadership's estimate of 200,000 party members going to the polls.
ping
and everybody will be showing a Voter I.D. card.
I support independence for Puerto Rico, which will never become a State.
I read in today’s online edition of “El Vocero” that Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá is crediting PPD supporters who crossed party lines for Rosselló’s defeat in Sunday’s PNP gubernatorial primary. Of course, Acevedo is elated and seeing the whole thing as a way to get even with Rosselló, who almost beat him in the 2004 general election.
So, I assume this was not a closed primary.
It was supposed to be a closed primary, and there are laws against party raiding, which is what happened. But Fortuño openly asked for the populares’ votes and the PPD encouraged it as well.
His problem now is whether the estimated 200,000 populares who put him over the top in the primary will again vote for him in November, which I doubt. So, once again, the Populares prove to be the more cunning.
Fortuño asked for the Populares’ vote? That was dumb!
I agree; it’s highly unlikely that the Populares who took him over the top in the primary are going to support him come November. And I hope Rosselló, while sitting this coming campaign out, will still be an influential voice in the statehood movement.
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