Jenniffer González of Puerto Rico's pro-statehood party edges ahead in gubernatorial election

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jenniffer González of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party was leading polls early Wednesday in a historic gubernatorial election that could see her party secure a third consecutive term for the first time.

González had 39%, or 438,183 votes with 91% of precincts reporting, according to Puerto Rico’s State Elections Commission.

Coming in second so far was Juan Dalmau, who ran for Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and Citizen Victory Movement. He obtained 33% or 364,145 of votes, making him the first candidate from outside the two island’s two main parties to finish second in Puerto Rico’s general election.

No winner has been certified, Jessica Padilla, the commission’s alternate president, said at a news conference early Wednesday.

“There are still votes in process of being counted,” she said.

While González claimed a win, Dalmau said his party would wait until every vote had been counted.

“This is the beginning of a glorious transformation of our country,” he said late Tuesday. Thank you for helping me make history.”

The Popular Democratic Party, a major party that supports the island’s status as a U.S. territory, was pushed into third place as its candidate Jesús Manuel Ortiz obtained 21% or 233,470 votes. Meanwhile, Javier Jiménez of Project Dignity, a conservative party, obtained 7% of the vote.

The winner will replace Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who was defeated by González in an upset in a primary election that was held in June by their New Progressive Party.

In the race to become Puerto Rico’s new representative in U.S. Congress, Pablo José Hernández of the Popular Democratic Party was leading. He obtained 46% of the vote compared with 35% for William Villafañe of the pro-statehood party, according to partial results.

Dashed hopes

Dalmau’s strong showing was a sign of a growing body of voters who are giving up on the island’s two established parties.

A growing number of voters old and young have said they were tired of persistent corruption, chronic power outages and a lack of affordable housing, among other things. Their search for new leaders has begun to loosen the hold that the New Progressive Party and the Popular Democratic Party had over Puerto Rico’s politics for decades.

Voters like Aisha Rodríguez Díaz, 37, said that Tuesday’s election gave them hope that a third-party candidate would win soon.

“They’ve already made history,” she said referring to the alliance between Puerto Rico’s Independence Party and the Citizen Victory Movement.

A question of status

On Tuesday, voters also considered a seventh nonbinding referendum about Puerto Rico’s political status.

It offered three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association, under which issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated.

Statehood obtained 57% of votes followed by independence with 31%, the first time that option clinched second place. More than 165,000 ballots were left blank.

Regardless of the referendum’s outcome, a change in status requires approval from the U.S. Congress.

Party officials have long said that despite being a part of the United States. Puerto Rico receives unequal treatment when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare and other federal programs.