Washington, Rabi'II 26, 1433, Mar 19, 2012, SPA - Republican front-runner Mitt Romney 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. His closest rival, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, was at 8 per cent. 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, former governor of Massachusetts, 521 delegates of the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination, according to a tally by The Washington Post. Santorum has 253 delegates, followed by former US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich with 136 and Texas Congressman Ron Paul with 50. The state-by-state presidential nomination contest continues with primaries Tuesday in the Midwestern state of Illinois with 69 delegates and Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico state of Louisiana with 46 delegates, according to a report of DPA. --SPA 11:38 LOCAL TIME 08:38 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/980898