The Senate convened a legislative session tomorrow, Sunday, to vote on the bill that would enable the statehood referendum Yes or No during the next general elections in November.
The spokesman of the majority of the New Progressive Party (PNP), Carmelo Ríos, informed at the First Hour that so far the project of Senate 1467, called “Law for the Final Definition of the Political Status of Puerto Rico”, is the only one that is in the calendar of the orders of the day.
He explained that the session was scheduled for tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. for the symbolism he would have in the fight to solve the centennial status problem.
“I think it has the symbolism that Monday is American Citizenship Day and then, when you look, the timing is perfect in the discussion of our status that has been under discussion for over 100 years. Within the Senate process, we have done the right thing to be able to raise it at the same time that citizenship is discussed and celebrated, ”he said.
American Citizenship Day, a state holiday, is commemorated on March 2. This day, but in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act. This act granted American citizenship to all persons born in Puerto Rico.
The bill that will be considered in the Senate specifically states that a status plebiscite would take place on November 3, general election day.
According to the measure, voters will be presented on the ballot with the following question: Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as a State? “Voters may only vote for one of the two alternatives printed on the ballot: Yes or No.”
Ríos indicated that there was a controversy over the definition of Yes and No. Therefore, their meanings were removed from the final draft to be voted on.
The initial bill established that the Yes would mean a “claim that the federal government immediately recognizes the equality of my duties and rights as an American citizen with statehood in permanent union with all states of the Union.”
Meanwhile, it did not mean a “rejection of the permanent union with statehood and claim that the federal government immediately recognize the sovereignty of Puerto Rico separated from the United States of America with a Treaty of Independence in Free Association or with Total Independence.”
Meanwhile, the senator said that once the law is passed, they would begin to take steps to get the federal Department of Justice to endorse the plebiscite and yield the $ 2.5 million that were approved in Congress when the current candidate for governor’s the New Progressive Party (PNP), Pedro Pierluisi, was a resident commissioner.
“If they do not approve it, we would take the consultation process forward anyway,” said the legislator.
