SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The future of Puerto Rico’s political status and its recovering but fragile economy are at the center of fiery debates as the island’s two largest political parties hold contentious gubernatorial primaries on Sunday.
Government Pedro Pierluisihead of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, seeking a second term and running against Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, Jenniffer González. The two rode on the same ticket four years ago, but González announced her plan to challenge Pierluisi in early December. Public jabs between the two have since turned bitter.
Joining Pierluisi for the position of congressional representative is Senator William Villafañe of Puerto Rico, while senior U.S. Navy officer Elmer Román, a former Puerto Rico secretary of state, is seeking the position under González.
Meanwhile, Senator Juan Zaragoza of Puerto Rico, who was highly praised for his work as the island’s former finance minister, is taking on Rep. Jesús Manuel Ortiz to become the leading candidate for the Popular Democratic Party, which is challenging the status quo of the island backs as a US territory.
Lawyer Pablo José Hernández is running unopposed as the party’s candidate for residential commissioner, the first person in two decades to seek that appointment.
All candidates face dissatisfied voters on an island still struggling with chronic power outages and high electricity bills as it awaits the completion of reconstruction projects after Hurricane Maria, which struck as a Category 4 storm in September 2017.
At one center, power went out shortly before Ortiz arrived to cast his vote, forcing officials to revert to a manual process.
Power outages remain such a major problem that the State Board of Elections has rented more than a dozen generators and a private power company has identified 81 alternative voting locations with guaranteed electricity.
“It’s been years since I last voted,” said Benito López, a 66-year-old retiree wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘The Island of Enchantment.’ He planned to cast a vote for a candidate he would not announce. “To see if there is any improvement and change.”
Other complaints from voters include the difficulty of obtaining business licenses, a broken education system and the island’s lack of access to capital markets after the local government emerged two years ago from the largest debt restructuring in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, the more than $9 billion debt burden of Puerto Rico’s energy company, the largest of any government agency, remains unresolved. A federal judge overseeing a bankruptcy-like process has yet to rule on a restructuring plan after bitter negotiations between the government and bondholders.
“They broke Puerto Rico,” said 79-year-old Cecilio Rodríguez of the current and previous administrations as he waited to cast his vote. “Economic development must be a priority.”
For other voters, halting the exodus of doctors from Puerto Rico and improving the U.S. territory’s crumbling health care system is a priority.
“It’s the patients who have to stay here and get through this. It’s not fair,” said Dr. Alfredo Rivera Freytes, an anesthesiologist who left Puerto Rico for the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Thomas because of ongoing problems with the local health care system.
He returned two years ago with plans to retire, but found himself back at work because of the need for anesthesiologists in Puerto Rico.
Ahead of the primaries, Pierluisi has cited record tourist numbers, ongoing hurricane reconstruction and growing economic development as his successes in his quest for re-election. He has pledged to prioritize projects aimed at children and the island’s growing elderly population, among other things.
An event marking the end of his campaign, a week before the primaries, was led by former governor Ricardo Rosselló, who resigned in August 2019 after almost two weeks of mass protests, sparked by a leak of crude and insulting chat messages between him and his colleagues. top advisors.
His opponent, González, was no closer to campaigning. She has pledged to tackle corruption, provide more funding to agencies to help victims of violence amid a wave of killings of women, and halt an exodus of doctors and other medical workers to the US mainland .
Meanwhile, Zaragoza has pledged to prioritize climate change and renewable energy, decentralize the island’s education department and improve access to healthcare. His opponent, Ortiz, has promised to improve the licensing process to retain doctors, simplify the island’s tax system and overhaul health care.
Puerto Rico’s next governor will have to work with a federal control board that oversees the island’s finances, which was created after the government declared bankruptcy.
More than 4,900 inmates in U.S. prisons voted ahead of Sunday’s primary. The State Board of Elections has also received and counted more than 122,000 early ballots.
