The number of votes in the Guánica mayoral race starts with controversy

The opening of 30 suitcases of the contest for the Mayor of Guánica began Thursday in the building of the Operational Center of the State Election Commission (CEE), but at the moment four of the five election commissioners do not have official certification It contains the number of votes which has been achieved by each candidate and should have been the basis for the official certification of Ismael “Titi” Rodríguez as the winner.

“We all work with figures released based on the minutes, but it is not the final certification. Yesterday OSIPE (Office of Information System and Electronic Processing of the EEC) promised to deliver exactly what the tally record is called for each polling station to have the real numbers, but the ideal is the certification for someone to know clearly ” election commissioner of the Popular Democratic Party, Gerardo “Toñito” Cruz.

His Puerto Rican Independence Party counterpart, Roberto Iván Aponte, said yesterday after a meeting to discuss voting rules today, he applied for certification from the EEC Deputy Secretary Felipe Velázquez. This morning, he said, they gave him a certificate, dated December 23, in which, judging by the number of candidates, the winner of the competition is the candidate directly nominated, Edgardo Cruz Vélez.

“For the matter of this process, to open the cases, it is necessary to have the specific number of votes of each of the candidates and it is not available. We blindly analyze some numbers. With what grades was the candidate of the popular party certified. We do not know. It’s crazy and why so much secrecy. It’s what makes you suspicious, ”Aponte wondered.

“I have not received a statement from the president explaining the vote count for Edgardo Cruz,” he added.

The election commissioner of the Victoria Ciudadana movement, Olvin Valentín, also filed the same complaint.

“The only document I have is one that says Edgardo Cruz above. But then that changed. Those new numbers have not been provided, ”said Valentín.

He stressed that they do not know the exact difference in votes between each candidate running for mayor of Guánica.

However, the election commissioner of the New Progressive Party, Héctor Joaquín Sánchez, said his counterparts were not right. He argued that the official statement had already been delivered to all election commissioners by email.

“I have the proof,” he said, but so far Sánchez has not provided this medium with the certification and email.

The vote count in Guánica comes today after the Supreme Court ordered the EEC to count all votes cast by the voter on behalf of Edgardo Cruz Vélez, regardless of whether or not he marked the box for direct nomination with an X.

The EEC declared Rodríguez the winner last December, but initially it turned out that he won by a difference of 24 votes and later by 52 votes.