Status Quo Candidate Wins Puerto Rico Election

By Enrique Martel

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Puerto Rico's protracted election came to a close on Tuesday after nearly two months of recounts and legal disputes with the certification of Anibal Acevedo Vila as the U.S. territory's new governor.

Acevedo Vila, who favors maintaining the island's status as a U.S. territory without the full rights of a state, won the Nov. 2 election by 3,566 votes against former two-term Gov. Pedro Rossello.

"As governor of all Puerto Rico I'll give to this job like I've done all my life. I'll give my body, soul and heart," Acevedo Vila said.

Rossello, who wants Puerto Rico to become the 51st U.S. state, said on Tuesday he would not continue to challenge the results of the Nov. 2 election, but said he still believed that Acevedo Vila's victory was illegitimate.

The close vote triggered a mandatory recount that dragged on for weeks amid legal disputes over mixed-vote ballots on the Caribbean island of 4 million people.

At issue were several thousand "double-split" ballots that bore a mark under party insignia and marks for individual candidates for governor and resident commissioner, the territory's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress.

Those ballots eventually were declared legal by the elections committee and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, and were counted.

Most of the split votes were thought to have been cast by supporters of independence who voted for Acevedo Vila in order to deny a boost to the movement that wants U.S. statehood for Puerto Rico.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston last week denied a petition by Rossello and the losing New Progressive Party asking the federal appeals court to intervene.

The disputed votes had been separated from the recount after Rossello challenged them in a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of San Juan. In its ruling, the Boston court said that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court -- and not the federal court -- had jurisdiction over elections on the island.

"We will not impugn the elections even though this is an option we have before the courts. We will not do it, not because we agree with the certification but because we don't want to extend the uncertainty and anxiety of the people of Puerto Rico, which has suffered over this irregular and unjust election," said Rossello, whose party did not sign the certification of gubernatorial election results.

Acevedo Vila is to be sworn in on Sunday to a four-year term as governor. He will head a government that for the first time in the island's history will feature a governor who favors the current status with the United States and a resident commissioner who favors U.S. statehood.

Luis Fortuno, a former high-ranking official in the Rossello administration, was elected the new resident commissioner.

The two new political leaders met briefly on Tuesday to lay out a working relationship, but did not discuss the status issue.

"I trust in the patriotic detachment (from partisan politics) of all those who were favored at the ballot boxes," said Acevedo Vila, who heads the Popular Democratic Party.