HispanicBusiness

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney appeared to have sprinted to an easy victory in the conservative party's presidential primary vote in Puerto Rico.

With fewer than 100,000 Republicans voting Sunday in the US commonwealth in the Caribbean, Romney had 83 per cent of the vote with more than 50 per cent counted, CNN reported late Sunday.

Under the party's rules in Puerto Rico, a candidate with more than 50 per cent of the primary vote wins all 20 of the island's delegates to the Republican nominating convention in September.

The victory gives Romney 521 delegates of the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination, according to a tally by The Washington Post.

His closest rival has less than half as many.

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