Puerto Rico governor pushes for statehood, upholds referendum results
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Puerto Rico's governor will hold an extraordinary session to push for approval of a resolution urging U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to honor the results of a recent referendum that would change the island's political status.
Luis Fortuno says Puerto Rico embraced statehood and rejected the current U.S. commonwealth status during a Nov. 6 referendum. He said Saturday that Congress and Obama pledged to respect the results of the two-part referendum.
In the first question, more than 900,000 voters, or 54 percent, said they were not content with the current status.
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On the second question, only about 1.3 million voters made a choice. Of those, nearly 800,000, or 61 percent, chose statehood. Some 437,000 backed sovereign free association and 72,560 chose independence. Nearly 500,000, however, left that question blank.