Puerto Rico Ousts Indicted Governor

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 8:00 PM


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rico's nonvoting delegate to the U.S. Congress was elected governor of the Caribbean island territory on Tuesday, defeating an incumbent who had been indicted for violating campaign finance laws.

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila conceded the election after Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuno of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party took a strong lead in early returns.

"I want to congratulate governor-elect Luis Fortuno," Acevedo said at the headquarters of his Popular Democratic Party. "It was a hard battle against all imaginable and unimaginable obstacles."

Fortuno had 53 percent of the vote to 41 percent for the governor with 27 percent of ballots counted.

The governor had urged islanders to support him despite a 24-count indictment charging him with wire fraud and other offenses for allegedly raising money illegally to pay off campaign debts from his terms as Puerto Rico's nonvoting delegate to Congress from 2000 to 2004.

He is scheduled to go on trial in February.

Acevedo's party favors maintaining Puerto Rico's semiautonomous relationship to the U.S. while Fortuno's wants the island to become the 51st state.

Fortuno, a 48-year-old lawyer, had pledged to fight crime and spur the economy of an island in recession and where unemployment recently hit the highest level in years.

Voters on the island of 4 million people were also choosing a new delegate to the U.S. Congress as well as 27 local senators, 51 representatives and 78 mayors. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but do not vote in the U.S. presidential elections.

International
http://www.newsmax.com