https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/09/puerto-rico-primary-ballots-392958Puerto Rico on Sunday was forced to partially suspend voting for primaries marred by a lack of ballots as officials called on the president of the U.S. territory’s elections commission to resign.
The primaries for voting centers that had not received ballots by early afternoon are expected to be rescheduled, while voting would continue elsewhere, the commission said.
“I have never seen on American soil something like what just has been done here in Puerto Rico. It’s an embarrassment to our government and our people,” said Pedro Pierluisi, who is running against Gov. Wanda Vázquez, to become the nominee for the pro-statehood New Progressive Party.
Meanwhile, Vázquez called the situation “a disaster” and demanded the resignation of the president of the elections commission.
“They made the people of Puerto Rico, not the candidates, believe that they were prepared,” she said. “Today the opposite was evident. They lied.”
The president of her party, Thomas Rivera Schatz, along with the president of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, held a joint press conference and said they agreed the remaining primaries should be held on Aug. 16, a move that Vázquez said she supported. The two parties are both holding their primary elections with the winning nominees among six gubernatorial candidates in November’s general election.
Other politicians argued that the entire primary be scrapped and held at another date.
An incredulous Schatz noted that there were still trucks with ballots inside parked at the commission’s headquarters as they spoke there.
“The question is, why haven’t they left?” he said.