Voters in Puerto Rico will choose a new governor next week, ending an unprecedented race in which a new coalition party has emerged with a strong chance to edge out two long-standing traditional parties.
For the past seven decades, Puerto Rico has been governed by statism New Progress Partycurrently held by Governor Pedro Pierluisi or by People’s Democratic Partysupports the island’s current territorial status. And during this period, the candidates of these two parties were the leaders in every election.
But this year the candidate Puerto Rico Independence Partya minority party defending the island’s independence from the United States made a breakthrough.
Independence Party candidate Juan Dalmau gained enough momentum to have a fighting chance of defeating pro-state incumbent Jennifer Gonzalez and relegating Popular Democratic Party candidate Jesús Manuel Ortiz to third place.
But Dalmau’s growing support has nothing to do with more Puerto Ricans supporting independence. Instead, he became the face of Alianza, a new coalition between the Independence Party and the People’s Party. Citizens’ Victory Movement — A party formed in 2019 by several individuals who had unsuccessful bids as separate, independent candidates in 2016.
After the 2020 elections, the two smaller parties realized that if they came together under a ‘strategic alliance’, they could gain enough support to potentially defeat the incumbent party,” said political scientist Carlos Vargas-Ramos. Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.
Underneath “Alianza” (Alliance)the coalition pledged to favor good governance on Puerto Rico’s status issue, serving as an attractive alternative to voters disillusioned by both traditional parties, marking itself as a movement against the pro-statehood party and the People’s Democratic Party.
Disillusionment and despair among Puerto Rican voters first became evident in 2016. record low voter turnout 55% It was reported to be an unusual milestone for an island known for its high voter turnout of 73% to 89%. Voter turnout remained unchanged 2020 election.
The low voter turnout was preceded by a series of crises that eroded people Trust in Puerto Rico’s government institutions.
The islanders have been in economic turmoil stemming from a financial crisis that reached a boiling point in 2015 when Puerto Rico racked up nearly $72 billion in public debt — though, unlike other US jurisdictions, it could not legally go bankrupt. As a result, Congress passed the PROMESA Act in 2016 to create a federally appointed fiscal oversight board to allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt.
As directed by the board The largest public debt restructuring in US historyhe implemented severe austerity measures led to layoffs and layoffs of government employees to health and education budgets. In addition, Puerto Rico has been hit by devastating natural disasters, including 2017 Hurricane Maria and a A series of earthquakes in 2020 and pandemic.
In 2019, Puerto Ricans took to the streets to participate is the biggest protest in recent history then chase –Governor Ricardo Rosselló follows political scandal involving him and dozens of members of the Cabinet of Ministers.
“Something Different” and “Continued”
For a generation of young Puerto Ricans like Cristina Rodríguez, 31, who has lived through these crises and blames the parties in power, Alianza is an option to bring much-needed change.
“Alianza not only has the youth to change things, but I think they remember from their experience how previous governments failed us throughout our upbringing and everything my generation had to endure growing up.” Rodriguez said. “I’m very hopeful that this is the first time I’ve seen something different happen.”
But the Alianza still faces a big challenge with voters who are historically concerned with Puerto Rico’s current territorial status or unwilling to disrupt the traditional party system.
The savvy and energetic 89-year-old Iraida Quinones, a loyal follower of the longtime pro-territorial People’s Democratic Party, will vote for Ortiz, the party’s candidate on election day. .”
Quinones, like many Alianza supporters, is unhappy with the last three governors, all of whom are pro-state. But he believes that voting for another traditional party is the best bet to topple the incumbent party.
Miguel Hernández, 51, an avid pro-stater and former island Housing Secretary, said he had already cast a mail-in vote for Gonzalez to ensure “the continuity of the current government.”
Fear of independence
Among the voters Alianza wants to attract, there are still a significant number who, despite campaigning as a priority, cannot put aside Dalmau’s support for independence.honest government” and is not seeking independence if elected.
A large majority of Puerto Ricans favor statehood or its current territorial relationship with the United States. The Cold War, especially after neighboring Cuba became communist under Castro. Puerto Rico’s history includes local traffic laws to a government-sanctioned surveillance program to the persecutors of independence supporters and even known as “las carpetas”. murders.
Dalmau’s main challenger, pro-statehood candidate González, is leading in the polls and has used this complicated history to his advantage — crafting political attacks that twist Dalmau’s platform promoting social democracy to claim he wants communism for Puerto Rico.
Jorge Schmidt Nieto, a political science professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, said the attacks proved effective among voters whose Cold War-era fears remained largely intact.
Complicating matters for the Alianza, Schmidt Nieto, is Puerto Rico’s 2020 electoral law restructuring the electoral process in a way that in practice gives the ruling party an “institutional advantage.”
One of these advantages is to enable parties and candidates to provide ballots to early voters. Schmidt Nieto said that since the state party is the largest party, they have the infrastructure to take advantage of this advantage in a big way, and they actually got about 200,000 votes for Gonzalez.
Against this background, a number of allegations of possible voter fraud have emerged A report from Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism Finding that at least 5,872 dead people voted in the 2020 and 2016 elections.
Ministry of Justice since then appointed District Election Officer to supervise Violation of voting rights under election day program in Puerto Rico.
Who comes to vote – and its potential impact
Gonzalez is currently the island’s resident commissioner, Puerto Rico’s non-voting representative in Congress. Unlike Gov. Pierluisi, who supports Vice President Kamala Harris, Gonzalez supports former President Donald Trump. Popular Democratic candidate Ortiz supports Harris.
All gubernatorial candidates, including Gonzalez, spoke out against comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist jokes. Calling Puerto Rico a “floating garbage island,” Dalmau and Ortiz also criticized Gonzalez for supporting Trump.
Polls put Gonzalez about 8 percentage points ahead of Dalmau. Charles Venator-Santiago“I wouldn’t be surprised if Dalmau would win,” said the director of the Puerto Rican Studies Initiative at the University of Connecticut.
According to Venator-Santiago, if enough young people vote and a fourth emergency party is called The merit of the projectPuerto Rico, which favors Christian democracy, could make history by electing a governor from a party that has never been in office before, with enough supporters of statehood to vote for gubernatorial candidate Xavier Jiménez.
“The gap isn’t that big. The question now is who will or won’t turn up to vote around the island?” Venator-Santiago said.
Election Day in Puerto Rico is November 5th.