Sunday
Dec052004
Puerto Rico candidate raps U.S. for meddling in vote
Sunday, December 5, 2004 at 12:44AM
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá says a judge's decision about the election for governor was wrong.
The candidate narrowly leading Puerto Rico's still-unsettled race for governor is charging the U.S. government with acting as a colonial ruler for seizing control of ballot counting in the protracted election. A U.S. District Court judge's decision to step in and overrule Puerto Rico's Supreme Court on how to run the recount "tortures the island's residents and holds them hostage," said Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, the Popular Democratic Party candidate who held a narrow lead in the election when ballot counting was suspended Nov. 2. Since then, efforts to complete that tabulation and get a recount under way have become mired in legal wrangling and worker walkouts as the commonwealth's three political parties try to sort through approximately 2 million ballots cast in the election. Federal involvement in the election has ignited passions on the island, with supporters of two of the three major parties decrying it as unwarranted and unwanted meddling in local affairs. [more]
The candidate narrowly leading Puerto Rico's still-unsettled race for governor is charging the U.S. government with acting as a colonial ruler for seizing control of ballot counting in the protracted election. A U.S. District Court judge's decision to step in and overrule Puerto Rico's Supreme Court on how to run the recount "tortures the island's residents and holds them hostage," said Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, the Popular Democratic Party candidate who held a narrow lead in the election when ballot counting was suspended Nov. 2. Since then, efforts to complete that tabulation and get a recount under way have become mired in legal wrangling and worker walkouts as the commonwealth's three political parties try to sort through approximately 2 million ballots cast in the election. Federal involvement in the election has ignited passions on the island, with supporters of two of the three major parties decrying it as unwarranted and unwanted meddling in local affairs. [more]