The former Massachusetts governor handily won 83.4 percent of the ballots, while Santorum became second with an astonishing result of merely 7.7 percent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came in third with two percent of the vote while Ron Paul stood fourth with only 1.1 percent.
“With a population larger than 22 states, this island contributes in so many ways to the vitality of our country,” Romney said in a statement following his victory on Sunday. “Working to advance the fortunes of this island, and to better the lives of everyone living here, will be an important goal of my presidency.”
Romney will receive all 20 delegates of Puerto Rico as he managed to win much higher than the required 50 percent of the vote.
Former Pennsylvania senator Santorum fell far behind his strongest rival Romney despite massive campaigning on the Island on Wednesday and Thursday. He made a grave mistake when he suggested that Puerto Rico would need to make English its official language before it could become the 51st US state.
Romney, however, told the voters that he respected the fact that Spanish had been spoken in Puerto Rico for more than 100 years and that he did not support the idea of changing the official language as a condition for statehood.
“Obviously, Puerto Rico is a … Spanish-speaking island – and they’ll continue to speak Spanish, and of course that’s their culture, and they have every right to do so,” said the multi-millioner Republican presidential hopeful during ABC’s nationally televised “This Week” news show. “But what I have said is that, you know, there should be fluency in English as well as Spanish.”
AO/MB
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