The counting of votes of the fight by the mayorship of Guánica begins with controversy

The opening of 30 briefcases of the contest by the mayor of Guánica began today Thursday in the building of the Operations Center of the State Election Commission (EEC), but so far has not provided four of the five commissioners electoral the official certification to the consists the amount of votes that obtained each candidate and that had to be the base for the official certification of Ismael “Titi” Rodriguez like winner.

“We are all working with some numbers that were released based on the records, but it is not the final certification. Yesterday OSIPE (EEC Electronic Information Processing and Processing Office) promised to deliver to us precisely what is called the ballot paper for each polling station to have the real numbers, but l “The ideal is certification for clear knowledge,” said Democratic People’s Party election commissioner Gerardo “Toñito” Cruz.

His counterpart from the Puerto Rican Independentist Party, Roberto Iván Aponte, said that yesterday after a meeting to discuss the rules that would govern the counting of votes today, he asked for certification from the EEC substitute secretary, Felip Velázquez. This morning, he said, he was handed a certification, dated December 23, in which he must be judged by the numbers of candidates the winner in the contest is the candidate by direct nomination, Edgardo Creu Vélez.

“For the subject of this process, to open the briefcases, it is necessary to have the specific number of votes of each of the candidates and this is not the case. We are analyzing some blind numbers. With what numbers was the candidate of the Popular Parties certified. We don’t know. It’s crazy and why I’m so secretive. It’s what makes one suspicious, “Aponte said.

“I have not received the certification of president to explain the number of votes of Edgardo Creu,” he added.

The electoral commissioner of the Citizen Victory Movement, Olvin Valentí, also made the same complaint.

“The only document I have is one that put Edgardo Cruz on top. But then that changed. These new numbers, they haven’t been provided,” Valentin argued.

He stressed that they do not know what the precise difference in votes is between each candidate who ran for mayor of Guánica.

However, the electoral commissioner of the New Progressive Party, Hector Joaquin Sanchez, said his counterparts were incorrect. He argued that the official certification had already been handed over to all election commissioners by email.

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

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

The EEC certified Rodriguez last December as the winner, but it had initially transpired that he won by a margin of 24 votes and then by 52 votes.