Government
and politics
See also: Municipalities of Puerto Rico, List of political parties in Puerto Rico, and Political party strength in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has a republican
form of government,[66] subject to U.S. jurisdiction and
sovereignty.[5]
Its current powers are all delegated by the United States Congress and lack full protection under the United
States Constitution.[67]
Puerto Rico's head of state is the President of the United States.
The government of Puerto Rico, based
on the formal republican system,
is composed of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch is headed by the Governor, currently Alejandro
García Padilla. The legislative branch consists of a bicameral
Legislative Assembly
made up of a Senate upper chamber and a House of Representatives
lower chamber. The Senate is headed by the President of the Senate, while the
House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker of the House.
The judicial
branch is headed by the Chief Justice of
the Supreme
Court of Puerto Rico. The legal system is a mix of the civil
law and the common law
systems. The governor and legislators are elected by popular vote every four
years. Members of the Judicial branch are appointed by the governor with the
"advice and consent" of the Senate.
Puerto Rico is represented in the
United States Congress by a nonvoting delegate, formally called a Resident Commissioner
(currently Pedro Pierluisi). Current congressional rules have removed the
Commissioner's power to vote in the Committee of the Whole, but the Commissioner can vote in committee.[68]
Puerto Rican elections are governed
by the Federal
Election Commission and the State Elections Commission of Puerto Rico.[citation needed][69][not in citation given][70][not in citation given] While
residing in Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans cannot vote in U.S. presidential
elections, but they can vote in primaries. Puerto Ricans who become residents of a U.S. state
can vote in presidential elections.
Puerto Rico is not an independent
country and, as such, it hosts no embassies.
It is host, however, to consulates from 41 countries, mainly from the Americas
and Europe.[71]
Most consulates are located in San Juan. As an unincorporated territory of the
United States, Puerto Rico does not have any first-order administrative
divisions as defined by the U.S. government, but has 78 municipalities
at the second level. Mona Island is not a municipality, but part of the municipality of Mayagüez.[72]
Municipalities are subdivided into
wards or barrios,
and those into sectors. Each municipality has a mayor and a municipal legislature elected for a four-year term.
The municipality of San Juan (previously called "town"), was founded first, in
1521, San Germán in 1570, Coamo in 1579, Arecibo
in 1614, Aguada in 1692 and Ponce in 1692. An increase of settlement saw the founding of 30
municipalities in the 18th century and 34 in the 19th. Six were founded in the
20th century; the last was Florida in 1971.[73]
Since 1952, Puerto Rico has had
three main political parties: the Popular Democratic Party
(PPD), the New Progressive Party
(PNP) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party
(PIP). These three parties stood for three distinct future political status
scenarios: the PPD seeks to maintain the island's "association"
status with the U.S. as a commonwealth, and has won a plurality vote in
referendums on the island's status held over the last six decades, the PNP
seeks to have Puerto Rico become a U.S. state,
and the PIP seeks the establishment of a sovereign
and independent republic.
In 2007, a fourth party, the Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico Party (PPR), was registered. The PPR claims that it seeks to
address the islands' problems from a status-neutral platform. However, it
ceased to remain a registered political party when it failed to obtain the requisite
number of votes in the 2008 general election. Other non-registered parties
include the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party,
the Socialist Workers Movement,
the Hostosian National Independence Movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment