Current Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa surprisingly won the first round of Sunday’s presidential elections and will compete with ultra-liberal economist Javier Milei in the second round.
With 86% of the tables counted, Massa obtained 36.2%, followed by Milei, with 30.3%, and the candidate of the centre-right coalition Together for Change, Patricia Bullrich, the biggest loser of the day, with a total of 23.71%. .
The preliminary results were celebrated in a festive atmosphere, with the massive presence of activists, trade unionists and members of social organizations, at the headquarters of the União pela Pátria movement, which supports 51-year-old Sergio Massa.
This is because polls had predicted that “anti-system” candidate Javier Milei would again receive the most votes in the first round of the presidential elections, repeating the victory of the August 13 primaries.
Despite Sergio Massa being economy minister in a country struggling with record inflation – 138.3% in the past 12 months – the centre-left candidate guaranteed the bloc’s presence in the second round.
About 77.7% of Argentine voters voted in Sunday’s general election, marking an increase of almost nine percentage points compared to the primaries but the second-lowest figure in the general election, official sources announced.
The Presidency’s General Secretary, Julio Vitobello, took stock after the closing of polling stations in Argentina at 6pm on Sunday (10pm in Lisbon).
The PASO elections (simultaneous and compulsory primaries), held on August 13, concluded with a participation rate of 69%.
Sunday’s turnout was the second lowest in a general election – in both the first and second rounds – since the country’s return to democracy.
The lowest figure was recorded in 2007, when 76.2% of voters went to the polls in the first round, the only figure needed on that occasion to secure the victory of Peronist Cristina Fernández, who defeated her husband, Néstor Kirchner (2003). -2007) to be confirmed. .
The highest participation rate was recorded in 1983, in the first democratic elections after the dictatorship (1976-1983), when 85.61% went to the polls to give victory to Raúl Alfonsín.
Some 35.4 million Argentines were called on Sunday to elect the president and vice president, renew 130 of the 257 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 of the 72 in the Senate, and to appoint 43 Argentine representatives to the appoint parliament. of Mercosur (Parlasul, the legislative body of the bloc consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).
And also to elect leaders in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Entre Ríos and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Source: DN
