Mirador Puertorriqueño
by: Wilfredo Santiago Valiente, P.h. D.                                                                Archives

2008 Elections in Puerto Rico:
A Survey of Results

This past November 4, 2008, 1,914,000, or 78% of the registered voters, went to the polls in Puerto Rico in one of the most politically charged and controversial elections in recent memory. Notwithstanding the high emotions elicited during the campaign, 80,000 less voters turned out to the polls compared to the previous 2004 election. This slightly lower turn-out has been attributed to the abstention of many Partido Popular Democratico (PPD) followers troubled over the legal woes of the governor- and party leader- Anibal Acevedo Vila; and, more important, to the fact that an estimated 150,000 voters migrated to the mainland United States between 2004 and 2008, mainly to Florida, but who remained registered in the voting lists. In any event, the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) obtained ample electoral majorities in the races for Governor and Resident Commissioner, and the local legislature and 78 island municipalities as well.

In the race for governor, the current Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner in Washington, and candidate of the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista Luis Fortuno, bested the incumbent Anibal Acevedo Vila of the Partido Popular Democratico. Fortuno received 1,014,000 votes, or 52.8 percent of the total votes cast, while governor Acevedo Vila received 793,000, or 41.3%. Meanwhile, Rogelio Figueroa, the candidate of the newly registered Partido Puertorriqueños por Puerto Rico (PPPR), which ran under the banner of “environmental protection”, obtained 53,000 votes (2.8%) and Edwin Irizarry Mora, of the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) only 39,000 (2.0%). This is the PIP’s worst electoral showing since don Gilberto Concepcion de Gracia founded the party in 1948. Dissident PNP followers opposed to the PNP candidacy of Luis Fortuno casted 12,000 “write-in” votes for former governor Pedro Rossello.

In the recent 2008 election, Luis Fortuno garnered 54,000 more votes than did Dr. Rossello in 2004, who lost then to governor Acevedo Vila by the short margin of 3,700 votes. However, Acevedo Vila, who had obtained 963,000 votes in 2004, received 170,000 votes less in 2008. This substantial loss of support may attributed (and this is highly speculative) to the above mentioned abstention in the polls by about 30,000 PPD followers; 40,000 voters who crossed over to the PPPR; 50,000 who migrated to the United States; and 50,000 who crossed over to the PNP. Meanwhile, the young lawyer Pedro Pierluissi (PNP) defeated the banker Alfredo Salazar (PPD) in the race for Resident Commissioner with margins similar to the one registered in the race for governor. Pedro Pierluissi, like the defeated PPD candidate Alfredo Salazar, is affiliated to the mainland Democratic Party.

Similarly, the PNP won large majorities in the local Senate and House of Representatives and elected 49 of the 78 mayors in the island’s municipalities. For example, in the Senate race, the PNP candidates won all 16 senatorial districts seats (San Juan; Bayamón; Arecibo; Mayagüez; Ponce; Guayama; Humacao; Carolina) and 6 at-large ones, while the PPD was able to elect 5 Senators at-large. Meanwhile, the PNP obtained a majority in 32 of the 40 House of Representative electoral districts throughout the island and elected 6 Representatives at-Large, or a total of 38 house representatives. The PPD elected 8 district representatives and 5 Representatives at-Large, or a total of 13 seats in the lower house. Nevertheless, the PPD is entitled to additional Senators and Representatives since, by constitutional requirement, no party is allowed to control over 2/3 of the seats in either the Puerto Rico Senate or the House of Representatives. For the first time in its history, the Puerto Rico Independence Party was not able to elect members to the legislature. In the meantime, the PNP was able to take over 8 municipalities from the PPD, including traditional strongholds like Lajas and Guayama which had been under PPD control ever since the party’s foundation in 1938. The PPD also lost the City of Ponce. However, the loss resulted from a local party split. In turn the PPD wrested the town of Cataño from the PNP.

* Wilfredo Santiago Valiente, P.h. D., is a Contributing Editor to El Boricua.  Dr. Santiago-Valiente has a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University and is originally from Cabo Rojo.  Presently he and his wife make their home in Santa Teresa, N.M. near El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where two married daughters and granddaughters live.