Argentine Elections Known Cloud25 Oct 2015 18:19
Press: After 12 years of Kirchnerism, Argentinian voters began choosing a new leader on Sunday amid expectations of a shift towards the political centre.With President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner having reached her two-term limit, on Sunday Argentinians will elect their first new head of state in eight years
Daniel Scioli, a moderate Peronist from the ruling Front for Victory coalition, was the frontrunner with polls indicating that he was close to a first-round victory, which would require either 45% of the vote or 40% with a 10-point lead over his nearest rival.
His two main rivals – Mauricio Macri, the conservative mayor of Buenos Aires, and Sergio Massa, a dissident Peronist – have been campaigning hard to force a run-off on 22 November.
At stake is the degree to which the government continues the leftist policies of outgoing president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who has dominated the nation’s politics since she first entered the Pink House with her husband, Néstor, in 2003.
Thanks to generous welfare spending, high employment and an assertive international profile, Fernández leaves offices at the end of her maximum two terms with strong levels of popularity but also a long list of economic woes including high inflation, depleted reserves and a longstanding feud with US hedge funds who are blocking access to global financial markets.
In the final week of the campaign, Fernández danced on stage at a rally for Scioli, her chosen successor. But the two have not always seen eye to eye. Scioli, a power-boating champion who lost his right arm in a race, is a protégé of former president Carlos Menem, who pursued a fiscally conservative economic policy in the 1990s. Promising gradual change, Scioli has offered tax cuts for the middle class and measures to lower inflation to single digits. End - Just another barrier to overcome well flagged but hopefully get the right brass in office. GL