General election were held in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, to elect the officials of the Puerto Rican government to serve from January 2017 to January 2021, most notably the Governor of Puerto Rico. Ricardo Rosselló was elected governor and Jenniffer González-Colón was elected Resident Commissioner. The elections saw a 23 percentage point drop in turnout and was the lowest voter turnout in Puerto Rican history.
Rossello would go on to serve a two-year term, having to resign on August 2, 2019 after protests as a result of the Telegramgate scandal. Wanda Vázquez Garced succeeded Rossello.
Candidates
Nominations
Before the election year, the Constitution of Puerto Rico provides for any qualified person to present their candidacy for a specific position. If two or more candidates from the same party present their candidacy for the same position, and they can't reach an agreement within the party, a primary election is held. This election is held within the inscribed members of each party, to select which of the candidates will represent the party in the general election.
The resident commissioner of Puerto Rico is the only member of the United States House of Representatives who is elected every four years instead of a two-year term. The resident commissioner and gubernatorial candidates run together as a ticket, like a governor/lieutenant governor ticket would run in the other states, but there are still separate general elections for each position.
The candidate from the New Progressive Party (PNP) Ricky Rosselló beat the candidate from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) David Bernier obtaining 42% of the votes against 39% for Bernier. Most notably, the two independent candidates – Alexandra Lúgaro and Manuel Cidre – managed to arrive in third and fourth place with 11% and 6% respectively. For the fourth election in a row, the candidate of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) failed to receive the required 3% of the votes to remain registered. The same result happened to Rafael Bernabe from the Working People's Party (PPT) for the second election in a row.
The numbers of legislators in this senate increased from 27 to 30, because the PNP won 21 of the 27 seats in contention, surpassing the two-thirds limit (18 seats). This automatically triggered Article Three of the Constitution of Puerto Rico which mandates that in such case new seats must be open for minority legislators. These new seats account for the number of seats the majority party surpassed (three seats in this election).
Despite losing most of the Senate and the House, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) managed to win a majority of the mayoralty races in the island, with a total of 45 out of 78 municipalities. The New Progressive Party (PNP) won a total of 33.[5]
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