Primary voting halted in centers lacking ballots

Puerto 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 were expected to be rescheduled, while voting would continue elsewhere, the commission said.

“I have never seen on American soil something like what has just 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.”

A federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances issued a statement saying the “dysfunctional” voting process was unacceptable and blamed it on what it said was inefficiency by the elections commission.

The president of the governor’s 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.

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.

A commission spokeswoman said officials were not immediately available for comment.

To further complicate things, Edgardo Román, president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press that it’s unclear what alternatives are legally viable because the island’s electoral law is not clear.

“It doesn’t contemplate this scenario,” he said.

Hundreds of frustrated voters who wore the required face masks and braved a spike in COVID-19 cases were turned away from centers across Puerto Rico as officials told them that no ballots were available.

“This is indignant, abusive and an attempt against the democracy of our country,” said Marcos Cruz, mayor of the northern town of Vega Baja, which was still awaiting ballots.