The candidate by direct nomination has the upper hand in the race for Mayor of Guánica

After a long day yesterday that lasted until the early hours of the morning, the State Election Commission (CEE) closed the vote count in the election contest for the Mayor of Guánica and declared the candidate by direct nomination, Edgardo Cruz Vélez, as the Victor.

In this way, Cruz Vélez makes history by becoming the second person to be admitted to mayor’s elective through the direct nomination mechanism. The first to do so was Santos “El Negro Ortiz”, who became mayor of Cabo Rojo in 1988 by direct appointment.

According to the EEC’s official statement, Cruz Vélez won by 2,411 votes against 2,356 for Ismael “Titi” Rodríguez. Rodríguez, who is a member of the Popular Democratic Party, was sworn in last Monday based on the EEC’s earlier statement and without waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision that an election case was underway.

The highest court ruled this week that the EEC must count all votes for Cruz Vélez on the ballots that include his name, regardless of whether the voter ticked the box corresponding to direct nomination.

The EEG carried out this work yesterday, which lasted into the early hours of today. The number of votes for the mayoral race was one of controversy and constant change.

Cruz Vélez, in a telephone interview with The new day and while going to Guánica, he said he was going through a “Way of the Cross.”

“This ended at 4:30 am and we survived 74 calendar days, from November 3 to today, of the Stations of the Cross. No one should go through this process in the next election cycle, ”said the now Mayor of Guánica.

He acknowledged that he will now have to make the transition process with Rodríguez, who previously did the same with former mayor of Guánica, Santos Seda.

Cruz Vélez said he filed an appeal in court today against Rodríguez’s certification, an action necessary to cancel the previous certification he had obtained from the EEC. Once the electoral body has issued a statement, it cannot cancel it. There has to be a challenge to certification before the EEC can go ahead, as explained by the deputy chairman of the electoral body, Jessika Padilla.

“Today we did it (the challenge) because it had to include a statement from the EEC stating the number of votes we had obtained,” explains Cruz Vélez, who before he decided to run for mayor of Guánica through direct nomination, tried to be the party’s official candidate. New Progressive (PNP) and after Project Dignity.

Exactly, yesterday was the election commissioner of PNP, Héctor Joaquín Sánchez, The new day that Cruz Vélez was the winner in the Guánica contest.

More controversy in court

But Rodríguez announced through his attorney, former election commissioner Lind Orlando Merle Feliciano, that he will go to court. He stressed that, in a motion brought before the court as part of the case brought by Cruz Vélez, the EEC stated that “No more votes could be assigned and suddenly 38 more votes appear at sunrise. This is not our claim, the minutes are here and we go to court to make the election process count fairly and accountably”.

Merle Feliciano claimed that in the universe of votes registered in the November 3 general election last year 1,899 votes were registered in the regular school, but after yesterday’s count, 1,955 votes appear.

“We claim that the final votes for Edgardo Cruz Vélez are 2,341 and not 2,411, with 2,386 for Ismael ‘Titi’ Rodríguez, with a difference of 45 votes. This whole situation was highly irregular. For example, for Mayor Ismael “Titi” Rodríguez’s certification, the CEE took 6 days and for Edgardo Cruz it was issued immediately, “he said.

The challenge of certifying the office of the mayor of Guánica is not alone. There are also challenges for the mayors of Aguadilla, Culebra, Barranquitas and San Juan. All candidates who have lost mayoral rights contests have until today, Friday, to file objections as determined by the Electoral Act in accordance with the ten days provided herein after the official statements are issued and given that they are issued by the EEC on last January 5.