In an act of solidarity and protest, many Puerto Ricans have used their symbolic elections for the US presidency to show their rejection of the war in Gaza. Through ballots in which Puerto Rico expresses its preference for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump without their vote counting for the official result, voters in the “unincorporated territory” of the United States have criticized the Israeli massacre and Washington.
“Statesmen or independentists, we are anti-colonialists, and it is at that point where we empathize with the conflict in Gaza,” Kenneth McClintock, former president of the Senate and representative of the New Progressive Party (PNP), tells elDiario.es. Despite ideological differences, many Puerto Ricans share a common position against colonization, which drives them to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, the former Secretary of State has maintained.
Several parties, such as the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), campaigned to vote blank in the non-binding elections for the presidency and on the legal status of the island with respect to the United States as a form of protest. In this context, many Puerto Ricans took advantage of the opportunity to express their discontent with the Government, writing messages on the ballots.
According to the State Election Commission (CEE), there were a greater number of null votes than in the gubernatorial, legislative and municipal elections. In the case of the US “presidential preference ballot” the nulls represented 12% (120,436). In the case of the non-binding vote on the legal relationship of the island with the United States (independence, statehood or sovereignty in free association with the United States), the null votes were 19% (178,258).
Statehood won 57% of the vote, followed by independence with 31%, the first time that option reached second place. However, any change in status requires approval by the US Congress. Regarding the presidential elections, 73.5% of voters showed their preference for Kamala Harris.
In addition to the allusions to Palestine, the most common protest topics on the ballots were criticism of the private electric energy company LUMA and the Fiscal Control Board, a US federal entity that has controlled the country’s finances since 2016. In the protest Politicians have also participated, such as the case of Rafael Bernabé, senator for the Citizen Victory Movement, who showed his support for Palestine in one of the ballots.
Historically, Puerto Rico has voted in elections on its territorial status, whether statehood, independence, or free association, but these results are not binding. This time, it also included the US presidential election, although Puerto Rico does not have direct representation in these elections, which raises doubts about the usefulness of these plebiscites, according to Gabriel Casal, representative of the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) and candidate for the mayor of Guaynabo. “These votes reinforce the colonial condition of the island and the lack of political autonomy,” denounces Casal.
The results have no consequences
Although Puerto Ricans repeatedly participate in this type of plebiscites, the results have not caused changes in the territorial situation of the island, since the US Congress has the final authority over its political status. “No new states are going to be admitted,” said Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, a day after the elections. McConnell describes this proposal as part of the “radical” and socialist agenda of the Democratic Party.
“The vote of the territorial state and the presidential elections have no weight or meaning in Puerto Rico,” political sociologist Emilio Pantojas tells elDiario.es, who points out that blank votes are a form of protest. Bianca Peña, an election official and volunteer in the Palestine Solidarity Network, criticizes the public funds invested in this process, alleging that this money could have been invested in structural improvements of schools used as voting centers.
Some voters, such as Louann Blass and Samira Zabeth, also used their votes to express their solidarity with Palestine. Both highlight the “similarities between the colonial situation” of Puerto Rico and Palestine. Zabeth, like Peña, remembers the historical abuses suffered by Puerto Rico at the hands of the United States, such as the case of the Vieques navy—the United States used this area of Puerto Rico for military tests—and denounces the “indifference of the international community towards the colonized peoples.”
In line with Zabeth, Bernabé assures that, although some Puerto Ricans do not want to be part of the United States, many see as offensive the fact that their vote is symbolic and has no real weight.
Zabeth highlights “the loss of cultural identity and the effects of foreign policies suffered by Palestine and Puerto Rico,” mentioning the Puerto Rican suffering due to “historical violence by the United States in times of natural disasters, and scientific and military experimentation.” It also highlights “the three-year withholding of federal funds after hurricanes María and Irma in 2017, the use of the Vieques Navy to carry out unregulated tests of military weapons and bombs until 2003, and the use of Puerto Ricans as rats.” laboratory in the development of drugs, such as the contraceptive pill in the 1950s.”
Grecia Ortiz also took advantage of this ballot to express her anti-colonial position and in favor of a free Palestine. “By making these symbolic efforts we have been begging the US for years to welcome us as a state. “After years and years of negligence and indifference towards Puerto Rico, are we now going to be a state?” he says.
Ortiz decided to cross out the entire ballot and write “Down with the genocide. Palestine will be free” in protest. “It could be us. Palestine is an occupied territory; Puerto Rico, a colony. I hope to see both free at some point in my life,” he says.
Gabriel annulled his ballot and wrote “Fucking genocides. Long live Palestine!” “This symbolic vote is a strategy of the New Progressive Party (NPP), the political party of the current Government in favor of statehood, to maintain the illusion of statehood on the island,” he states.
“They want us to think that we can choose, mocking our colonial state and reminding us of its power,” says Verónica Martínez, who also used her ballot to protest the offensive in Gaza.
“Voters are free to decide what they do with their ballots. They can choose to cast a vote that is counted for the purposes for which the election is called or use it for another purpose, knowing that it may be annulled. Whether it is to support any cause, I respect the decision that each voter makes to do with their opportunity to vote what they want, including wasting it,” the congressional delegate of Puerto Rico to the US Senate, Zoraida Buxó, has declared to this medium.
Although it is a non-binding decision, sociologist Emilio Pantojas has highlighted that, to the extent that Kamala Harris obtained the majority of votes, “Puerto Rico antagonizes Donald Trump, an opponent of statehood. “This could result in a negative element for the new governor and former representative of Puerto Rico in the US House of Representatives, Jeniffer González, in her relations with Trump during his period as president.”
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