Who will decide Puerto Rico's election results?
By Tom Soto
San Juan, P.R.
A month after elections were held in this island nation of 4
million--which has been a U.S. colony since 1898--there is
still no official winner in the gubernatorial race.
The reason: A federal judge, Daniel Dominguez, has taken
over control of the electoral process and overruled a decision
by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico which had instructed the
Elections Commission to "count and adjudicate" all the votes in
this past November's election--including thousands of contested
crossover votes made by "independentistas" (supporters of the
independence) who voted for Anibal Acevedo Vilá of the
Popular Democratic Party.
The action of Federal Judge Dominguez in assuming
jurisdiction of the electoral process, after the opposing New
Progressive Party challenged the independentista ballots and
initiated a suit in the local federal court, is broadly viewed
by large sections of Puerto Rican society as an open colonial
insult.
On Nov. 3 the Election Commission had preliminarily
certified Anibal Acevedo Vilá as the winner in the
gubernatorial race, with 48.38 percent of the vote. His
contender, Pedro Roselló of the pro-statehood New
Progressive Party, received 48.18 percent of the vote.
The difference between the two bourgeois candidates was
about 3,800 votes. So the crossover independentista vote has
become crucial. Thirty percent of the eligible voters in Puerto
Rico did not participate.
The Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party
are the two bourgeois parties that have historically
administered the colonial government of Puerto Rico on behalf
of U.S. interests.
A third electoral force is the Puerto Rican Independence
Party (PIP). As a result of thousands of its supporters
crossing over and voting for the gubernatorial candidate of the
Popular Democratic Party, the PIP did not receive the 5 percent
of the vote required to maintain its official electoral status,
though PIP members were elected to the House and Senate of the
Puerto Rican Legislature.
Usually capitalist political factions who administer the
government concede to one another after an election result,
even if the outcome is close. They are keenly aware that no
matter which bourgeois party gets to administer the state,
capitalism and private property go on as usual.
But the election of November was particularly sharp and
divided, especially due to the participation of Pedro
Roselló of the New Progressive Party. As two-term
governor from 1993 to 2000, he led the most corrupt
administration in the history of Puerto Rico, emptying the
coffers of the treasury. He now is pushing ahead with a new
plan to impose statehood.
At issue in the current electoral crisis is whether, within
the context of a colonial capitalist democracy, the
independentista vote will be counted and adjudicated or
disenfranchised altogether, thus allowing the colonial governor
to be literally handpicked by a federal judge. However, the
political crisis also seems to reflect new emerging economic
relations between the U.S. and other countries in Latin
America.
In an earlier historical period Puerto Rico was a center of
continuing U.S. invest ment, which stimulated economic growth
on the island, though distorted and owned by foreigners.
But in recent years the United States has made a number of
so-called free trade agree ments--the Latin American Free Trade
Area (ALCA) and the Central Amer ican Free Trade Agreement
(CAFTA)-- that allow U.S. economic penetration and exploitation
of so-called cheap labor markets in Mexico, Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.
Beyond a doubt, capital will flow to the areas where the
rate of profit is highest. How this emerging economic situation
affects the Puerto Rican economy, which is U.S.-owned, remains
to be seen, but it is certain that many U.S. corporations will
pick up and leave for more profitable areas if these so-called
free trade agreements are consummated.
As of the beginning of 2004, total Puerto Rican government
debt, including municipalities and so-called public
corporations, was $32.3 billion--in a small island nation where
53 percent of the population lives below the established U.S.
poverty level, 77 percent of the women are heads of households,
and an average 50 percent of all salaries are committed to pay
for personal debt.
During moments of election rhetoric, the candidate of the
Popular Democratic Party spoke of the "need for more autonomy
and the right of Puerto Rico to carry out its own economic
agreements," but he was simply electioneering.
While the Popular Democratic Party has appealed the decision
of Judge Dominguez to the Federal Appeals Court in Boston, many
workers, students, independentistas and socialists have taken
to the streets.
The current political crisis could become a clarion call to
struggle. On Monday, Nov. 29, at 10 in the morning during
working hours, a demonstration of 5,000 was held near the
Federal Court house in San Juan. Demonstrators demanded that
the federal court respect the supremacy of the Supreme Court of
Puerto Rico regarding counting and adjudicating all the
votes.
On Friday, Dec. 10, youth organizations of the Socialist
Front--which during the election had advocated that "No
candidate deserves your vote"--clashed with police in front of
the Federal Court under the slogan: "No to colonialism, Federal
courts out of Puerto Rico!"
Reprinted from the Dec. 23, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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