Political parties in Puerto Rico lists political parties in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties, with extreme difficulty for anybody to achieve electoral success under the banner of any other party.

According to Puerto Rico Electoral Laws[1] (http://www.ceepur.net/electoral.law.html), the country recognizes any political party with 5% or more of the total voters.

The parties

The general rule on naming applies. That means: the parties are named in the English translation and the original native name is placed on the first line of the article unless the native form is more commonly used in English than the English form. Rationale and specifics: See: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English).

Major parties

Historically, there have been three major political parties in Puerto Rico:

The PPD and PNP have exchanged the Governor's seat since 1948, but the PIP has also had an impact on the election: many consider that the small group of PIP voters could have made a difference as to which of the other two major parties won some of the close elections. This latter phenomena is locally referred to as the watermelons (or melones in Spanish), because of the party colors of those who vote for the PPD (red) but in reality support the PIP (green )

Other parties

Past parties

Political organizations

• National Hostosian Congress - Congreso Nacional Hostosiano (umbrella organization for pro-independence activists)
• New Independence Movement - Nuevo Movimiento Independentista
• Pro ELA (in favor of a freely associated republic status)
• United Statehooders - Estadistas Unidos

See also

• Index of political parties to browse parties by name
• List of political parties to browse parties by country
• List of political parties by ideology to browse parties by name
• Membership of internationals to browse parties by membership of internationals
• List of political parties in the United States

External links

• CIA World Factbook: Puerto Rico (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rq.html)
• Elections in Puerto Rico (http://electionspuertorico.org/home_en.html)

Official sites

• Commonwealth Elections Commission of Puerto Rico (http://www.ceepur.org/?en) (see: General Information)
• Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico (http://www.ppd.org)
• Puerto Rican Independence Party (http://www.independencia.net/ingles/)

References

1. Central Intelligence Agency (USA). The World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook) (2003). United States of America.
2. Commonwealth Elections Commission of Puerto Rico (2003). Puerto Rico Electoral Law (http://www.ceepur.net/electoral.law.html). Puerto Rico.