![First Circuit says Puerto Rico Supreme Court should rule on disputed ballots in gubernatorial race](https://www.jurist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jurist-white-text.png)
[JURIST] The US First Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Boston ruled Wednesday that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, not the local US District Court in San Juan, should rule on a case concerning disputed ballots in the territory's November gubernatorial election. The ruling makes it likely that the winner will be pro-status quo Popular Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Anibal Acevedo Vila, who had been declared in winner after a count that had included so-called double-split ballots marked for one party but favoring different party candidates for governor and resident commissioner (analogous to a Congressman for the territory). Vila's opponent, pro-statehood New Progressive Party (NPP) candidate, Pedro Rossello, a former two-term governor, had opposed the counting of those ballots. The case has been remanded. Read the opinion here. Reuters has more.