Voters in Brazil reject Para state's partition

RIO DE JANEIRO — Voters in a northern Brazilian state have rejected a proposal that would have broken it into three new states.

Brazilian electoral officials say that with more than three-fourths of ballots counted Sunday night, about 67 percent of the votes are against dividing Para state.

They say it's mathematically impossible for the measure to pass. The results were expected.

The state in the Amazon region is approximately the size of Peru. It's the wealthiest and most populous of northern Brazil.

Proponents of the division argued that the interests of people living far from the state capital aren't well represented. Opponents said creating two more state governments would be too costly.