This Tuesday, Puerto Ricans began their participation in elections generals that are emerging as historic due to the intense competition between the ruler New Progressive Party (PNP) and the new Country Alliance.
Voting centers will be available from 9:00 am local time (13:00 GMT) until 5:00 pm local time (21:00 GMT), allowing citizens to elect the governor, representatives, senators and mayors of the island.
In several areas of the metropolitan area, dozens of people were lining up before the opening of the polling stations, despite the heavy rain.
The candidates for governor are Jenniffer González, for the PNP; Juan Dalmau, from the Alliance; Jesús Manuel Ortiz, of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD); and Javier Jiménez, from Proyecto Dignidad (PD).
According to the survey published last Sunday by the main local newspaper, The New Day, González will win the governorship with 37% of the votes, followed by Dalmau, with 29%, Ortiz (22%) and Jiménez (7%); but a previous newspaper poll The Spokesman It gave the former only 31%, leaving it in a virtual tie with the Alliance candidate.
If Dalmau wins, it would be the first time in Puerto Rico that an independence candidate who is not part of the two main parties (PNP and PPD) reaches the governorship.
The Country Alliance, made up of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC), has managed to garner enormous popular support from renowned artists such as Bad Bunny, Ricky Martin and Residente.
Even a second position is already a triumph given that the PNP and the PPD are the parties that have alternated in power for decades in Puerto Rico, a Free Associated State of the United States.
Given this very close contest, Fears of fraud have also been raised, more so after yesterday a court approved a request from the PNP to allow the early vote to be counted even if there is not representation of all political parties in the process.
In this electoral event, Puerto Ricans will also vote in a consultation on the political status of the island, choosing between statehood (annexation to the United States), independence or sovereignty in free association, although it is not binding because it does not have the green light from Washington.
FP
