Puerto Rico election case roils

[Khephra]

Puerto Rico election case roils
Protesters face off near Boston court

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff | December 14, 2004


Protesters waving American and Puerto Rican flags squared off yesterday outside the Moakley federal courthouse while a three-judge panel inside heard arguments in the latest chapter of a lingering election dispute that has been roiling the independent commonwealth.

The Puerto Rico Election Commission has declared the island's current representative in Congress, Anibal Acevedo Vila, the winner of the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election, but the commonwealth's former governor, Pedro Rossello, is challenging the result.

Preliminary results showed Vila and his Popular Democratic Party winning over Rossello's New Progressive Party by a margin of 48.38 percent to 48.18 percent, but a rush of ballots after midnight on Election Day and the New Progressives' otherwise strong showing in winning two-thirds' majorities in the House and Senate, as well as 45 of 78 municipalities, has raised questions about the results.

Two lawyers who worked together on behalf of George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election dispute took opposite sides of the argument as the case was argued in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which hears cases from the US District Court in San Juan.

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/14/puerto_rico_election_case_roils/